Top 6 Warehouse Safety Tips
What are the tips for maintaining warehouse safety?
- Assess the potential risks and hazards
- Practice good housekeeping
- Train personnel on proper equipment use
- Provide the proper PPE
- Create a fire evacuation plan
- Maintain heavy equipment regularly
To increase productivity, countless warehouse facilities utilize different types of equipment. Because of this, managers need to ensure that the workplace is a safe space for all employees. With busy shifts and numerous objects to transport and store, it is common for collisions and other minor accidents to happen. To prevent this, here are some warehouse safety tips! Keep on reading.
Assess The Potential Risks and Hazards
Numerous activities involving equipment use, lifting, and handling heavy goods are done in a warehouse. Because of this, you can get an idea of the potential risks and hazards that a worker gets exposed to. To eliminate these problems, knowing the common causes of workplace-related injuries is beneficial:
Slips, trips, and falls
Slips, trips, and falls can happen when spillage and other solid obstructions are neglected on a path with heavy foot and vehicle traffic. It also involves a worker falling from a ladder, roofs, or scaffoldings because of losing balance or a collapsing structure.
Overexertion
Physical injuries are attained because of excessive effort when completing tasks that involve heavy lifting, carrying, pushing, and more. The common result will be back pain and muscle strains.
Contact with objects and equipment
Because of problems with visibility when completing tasks, workers might bump or step on objects in the warehouse. Getting stuck in equipment or caught in a collapsing structure is also common.
Practice Good Housekeeping
To reduce the risk of accidents, regular housekeeping is key. Keeping aisles and passageways clean and free of obstructions will make workers not just safe but also more productive.
Train staff to clean up spills and small objects on pathways. Usage of anti-slip shoes and flooring material might also be beneficial. This way slips, trips, and falls could be reduced. Aside from that, getting rid of pooling oil and flammable material also decreases the fire hazards in the workplace.
Keeping your warehouse clean and orderly can be achieved by maintaining a regular cleaning schedule. As a manager, you must inspect the area to ensure that the cleanup is complete.
Train Personnel On Proper Equipment Use
Manual handling of packages increases the risk of overexertion for your workers. As much as possible, it is recommended to use forklifts and pallet trucks in a warehouse. This improves productivity by allowing workers to transport and carry heavy loads in and out of the facility.
But that doesn’t mean that just anyone can use these without the proper training. With practical and technical instruction, your staff will understand the risks that come with improper operation of equipment.
This will encourage your workers to follow the safety procedures in the workplace. As a bonus, your employees will know the maximum load limits they can work on, which is good for your equipment.
Provide The Proper PPE
Depending on the risks that are present in your warehouse, the personal protective equipment you provide might differ. But to give you some idea, here are the basic items that your workers need to use daily:
- Head protection: This includes hard hats and helmets to protect workers from falling objects and bumps to the head.
- Hearing protection: Forklifts emit 85 decibels of sound or more. When operated continuously without ear protection, this can affect your worker’s sense of hearing negatively.
- High visibility clothing: Vehicle operators might not see incoming pedestrians in low visibility areas. To reduce the risk of accidents, high-vis clothing should be worn by all employees.
Aside from these, a fall arrest system is beneficial for preventing slips, trips, and falls when working from heights.
Create A Fire Evacuation Plan
Fire risk is one of the issues warehouse owners must reduce. If you’re not prepared for this situation, flames could engulf your storage area in just a few hours—causing a huge amount of losses in assets and numerous injuries to workers. To reduce this risk, you can conduct the following:
- Observe fire laws and codes for warehouses in your area
- Hire a professional to conduct a risk assessment
- Store flammable materials in isolation away from ignition sources
- Train staff regularly with fire drills
- Implement proper housekeeping
- Maintain electrical systems, sprinklers, fire alarms, and hydrants
A fire evacuation plan will also allow your employees to respond fast when they discover a fire. Ensure that your warehouse is equipped with escape routes, firefighting equipment, and emergency lighting.
Maintain Equipment Regularly
Warehouse equipment—whether it’s a forklift, pallet jack, or generator set—requires regular maintenance to keep it working in the best condition. In addition to pre-operation and post-operation checks, scheduled service must also be conducted to replace used parts.
Depending on your forklift and pallet truck brand, your manufacturer will recommend machine checks after some time. This will let you know whether an oil change, filter replacement, and brake repairs are needed.
Aside from regular inspection, your generator should also be maintained even when not in use. It is necessary to empty the fuel when storing your genset to prevent erosion and damage.
Key Takeaway
By implementing these warehouse safety tips, you can reduce the risks that your workers are exposed to daily. This way, you can prevent injured personnel, inefficient staff, high employee turnovers, legal issues, and fatalities. Aside from these, it also boosts staff morale and motivation, which can improve their productivity in the workplace.
If you’re interested in tried-and-tested warehouse equipment for your company, you can contact Multico! We can help you choose the right products that will enhance efficiency in your facility.
