Don't Think about Warehouse Safety

Don’t think about warehouse safety?

Admittedly, that’s an odd start to a LinkedIn post on the topic. The point is, however, that thinking about things never produces any tangible benefit unless we act on those thoughts and perform whatever actions are required to accomplish whatever it is we want to do. So, advances in achieving a safer workplace will never occur without actually doing something about workplace safety.

If your company operates a warehouse or distribution center, you likely deal with material handling equipment such as forklifts, conveyors, carousels and other machinery. You probably have a good amount of pallet rack and perhaps vertical storage units and/or automated storage and retrieval systems. And despite the hardhats and steel-toed shoes, mishaps and injuries in a warehouse environment like this are inevitable.

The Perils of Warehouses

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) states what we all know – that warehouse environments have more accidents than typical workplaces – and calls out the following potential warehouse hazards in the OSHA Pocket Guide – Worker Safety Series: Warehousing:

• • Unsafe use of forklifts
• • Improper stacking of products
• • Failure to use proper personal protective equipment
• • Failure to follow proper logout/tagout procedures
• • Inadequate fire safety provisions
• • Repetitive motion injuries

According to the National Safety Council, the estimated average cost of a non-fatal workplace injury for an employer is $5,000, and includes “time spent investigating and reporting injuries, giving first aid, production slowdowns, training of replacement workers, and extra cost of overtime for uninjured workers.” For a fatal accident, the cost jumps to $20,000. What’s more, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the rate of workplace-related injury or illness cases per 100 full-time workers is 5.5. Even if you only have a warehouse staff of 20, that’s more than one accident.

Of course, there are ethical and moral reasons to provide a safe workplace, but realistically it is the fiscal bottom-line that drives decisions that have monetary implications, such as purchasing appropriate pallet rack or a vertical lift module – two examples of material handling outlays that have safety implications.

If a warehouse is using pallet rack that is in disrepair or that is not rated for the loads it is bearing, then the odds of a mishap due to rack failure are increased. If a distribution center requires its pickers to constantly bend over or stretch to reach inventory, then the odds of repetitive-motion injuries are increased.

All that being said, oftentimes the cost of having appropriate, properly maintained material handling equipment and pallet rack isn't just about how much it will cost to purchase it – it’s also about how much it will cost not to purchase it. The true price of equipment must be weighed against the costliness of a greater chance of accident, injury and downtime.

Photo Credit: bschmove via Compfight cc

This post by Matt McDaniel originally appeared in his Outsource Equipment blog.