National Emphasis Program PIV’s are Protected with a Forklift Safety System

In June 2023, the National Emphasis Program was released by OSHA. The purpose of the document is to get a better handle on injuries that occur in high risk facilities such as warehouses and distribution centers. The National Emphasis program discuss the importance of inspections. They state, “All inspections under this NEP will focus on workplace hazards common to the above industries including, but not limited to, powered industrial vehicle operations, material handling/storage, walking-working surfaces, means of egress, and fire protection.” Let’s take a further look into the National Emphasis Program.

The Growth of Warehouse and Distribution Centers

The National Emphasis Program reports that warehouse and distribution centers have grown considerably from 2011 to 2021. Even though we are much more aware of these facilities today with their growth, this really isn’t anything new. However, what is interesting is the number of worker growth in the area. Yes, of course, we do expect that with the growth of the warehouse and distribution centers, along with it comes workers, but the number a bit eye opening. As the growth started, the number of workers were approximately 668,900 and this number has been seasonally adjusted. By the end of 2021, there are over 1,713,900 workers, that’s more than double from where we started.

How are You Protecting those Workers

As the National Emphasis Program shows, that’s a lot more workers you are now employing. The question that needs to be asked is, how are you protecting those workers especially the operators for material handling vehicles. You may be doing exactly what the process was 10 or 8 years ago, but is that really the best especially when technology has finally made its way into warehouses and distribution centers.

Forklift safety systems have come a long way first with using some digital and RFID technologies with tags. Although it is still used today, you are still assuming plenty of risk. That’s because if the tag isn’t being worn and open to being read, then there’s little to no protection on these workers. What does provide better protection is the use of AI or artificial Intelligence along with the use of machine learning and vision technologies. The combination is what makes up the SIERA.AI forklift safety system.

Why It Works

The forklift safety system is a great way to protect and comply with the National Emphasis Program as it pertains to powered industrial vehicles (PIV). Here you will be able to identify a person or an object within a predefined distance. This means that even before the person or object gets within harms way, the operator will be notified with an audio and visual cue. This will allow the operator to take action in order to avoid an impact with the person or object.

All of this information for near misses, or identified impacts for the person or object are automatically recorded in the online telemetry Dashboard. This collection of data is graphically put together to make it easy and fast for you to get to the information you need to make an informed decision.

Contact Us!

Contact us today at sales@siera.ai or call us at (512) 817 0702.