Ensuring that your warehouse is a safe environment is important for both personal protection and the protection of your employees. In today’s society, it is also important that you adhere to all safety rules and regulations to avoid lawsuits resulting from serious injuries, or fines as a result of non-compliance. To make sure that your warehouse and warehouse equipment is safe for your employees, here are 7 basic warehouse safety tips that you can’t ignore:
- Staff Training – In order to avoid errors, you need to start by implementing ongoing staff training programs to educate your workers on the safety precautions for their work tasks, the equipment they use, and materials they handle on a daily basis.
- A Clean Workplace – It is incredible just how many warehouse accidents are related to clutter, mess and disorganization. Your warehouse should be inspected and cleaned every day and stringent protocols for clutter and mess cleanup should be implemented. Tools, sharp objects, wires, cords, or left over materials lying around on the floor are real hazards for any warehouse employees, and should be cleaned up immediately.
- Time Requirements – Although productivity is important for you as an employer, you have to understand that working in a warehouse is a highly demanding job. Therefore you need to set reasonable time requirements so that the time pressure does not cause extreme warehouse mishaps.
- Lifting Equipment Safety – A list of warehouse safety tips cannot be complete without a bit of advice on forklift safety. You should implement a zero-tolerance policy as far as safety procedures for forklift operations. Make sure only forklift operators who are adequately trained and certified are using lifting equipment in order to reduce the risk of injury as well as the risk of damaging the equipment or goods. The forklift should also be inspected at the end of each day, and maintained regularly to ensure safety.
- Hazardous Materials – This is one of the warehouse safety tips that does not apply to all warehouses, but mainly to those that transport, use, and store hazardous materials. A protocol should be established related to all of the operations involving hazardous materials, and these protocols should consistently be updated to include the latest safety solutions in the field.
- Conveyor Safety – Unguarded pinch pints on conveyor equipment can lead to a variety of injuries. Make sure that you inspect conveyors, as well as all other equipment in your warehouse on a daily basis to ensure that proper maintenance and repairs are implemented as needed.
- Personal Safety – Warehouses are demanding environments and they require a certain discipline that ultimately facilitates the safety of all workers. A dress code, including safety equipment requirements, needs to be established in order to ensure personal safety, and supervisors should thoroughly observe workers for signs of fatigue and dehydration.
These are just 7 of the many essential warehouse safety tips that you can adopt to make your warehouse a safer environment for your staff. Having proper safety equipment installed is one way you can dramatically increase the safety of your warehouse and improve the efficiency of your operations. To learn more about Pentalift’s custom lifts, positioning equipment and loading dock equipment, contact us today at 519-763-6700.