One of the world’s most dangerous professions is working in a warehouse. It may not seem like it, but it is a place where accidents can happen very easily.
It is the employer’s duty to ensure that the workplace is safe and that workers are not risking their health unduly. Identifying hazards and ensuring that employees adhere to OSHA’s rules and regulations by ensuring that they have the right safety training, such as the OSHA 10 or OSHA 30, is one of the first steps to a safer workplace.
To reduce the risk of injury, it pays to take some extra precautions even beyond the minimum according to the law. Your employees will work better knowing they are protected. And your bottom line is increased when you aren’t paying out for those injuries and insurance.
In this article, I will go over several ways that you can improve the safety of your warehouse.
1 – Pallet safety
To get an idea of exactly what a pallet is, you can read the ultimate guide to pallets, but the basic idea is that it is a flat transport structure. They are uniform so they are easily transported and then storage can be done easily since they are easy to sit side by side.
They present a dangerous situation in the warehouse, however. Usually the material used is not of a high quality which means that if they are under a weight, they can easily break apart.
Make sure to use only well regarded companies when choosing a manufacturer for your pallets to reduce the risk.
Also, don’t over stack them as they are only designed for a limited amount of weight. Follow the guidelines for the particular pallet as they all are designed differently.
Lastly, don’t use old pallets as they have a degraded structure that makes them vulnerable to cracks and can break without much effort.
Sentence: Make sure to use only well regarded nationwide pallet experts when choosing a manufacturer for your pallets to reduce the risk.
2 – Keep it tidy
A warehouse with a lot of debris is an accident waiting to happen. This debris can get in the way of a safe operation of a warehouse by impeding the flow of your vehicles or causing trip and fall injuries.
Not only that, but warehouse fires can happen when there is a lot of dust and debris that can light up on fire.
Keeping trash where it belongs and the aisles free from debris should be a big priority. Have a system for trash collecting and make sure that everybody is responsible for cleanliness so they don’t wait for somebody else to clean up after them.
3 – Keep vehicles inspected
Forklifts are incredibly dangerous even when they are fully operational and in good working order. Now, imagine if they are not being maintained well and have some issues.
To avoid accidents and injuries due to mechanical problems, make sure that your vehicles are being inspected regularly. Even more often than is legally required.
Not only that, but you should have your warehouse set up to avoid damage to your vehicles that operate within it to keep them in working order. Docks and columns inside the warehouse should have bumpers on them just in case.
