Ultimate Warehouse Safety Tips – Driven by Data

Great, another article on warehouse safety tips. There are many articles out on the Internet that talk about warehouse safety. All of the blogs, articles and white papers discuss valid topics such as forklifts, hazardous materials, loading dock, slip and falls and falling objects. When everything is a warehouse safety concern, what is the safety priority list?

When you ask any warehouse manager to list their top safety concerns, the priority list will vary. The dynamics within a facility change by location. Where damage due to forklift impacts may be a high concern in one facility, the transportation of chemicals within another plant may be the top priority. The priority list is most times driven by the number of accidents or near-accidents that pertain to particular issues.
However, are these the right priorities? Is changing priorities based on accidents being reactive or proactive?

The only way to understand where the warehouse safety risks reside within the facility is to analyze the data.

Warehouse Safety Tips –Data Tells the Story

To identify the areas within the facility that are at risk, you need to capture data.
There are 3 ways to capture data on moving vehicles:

1. Electronic inspection
2. Proximity monitoring
3. Impact detection

Warehouse Safety Tip #1 – Electronic Inspection

Electronic inspections on your lift trucks are part of your daily or pre-shift routine. Instead of maintaining paper-based booklets or binders, all the answers are captured electronically. This will allow you to continuously collect data. The operator scans their badge or enters their employee PIN then answers the inspection questions with a quick tap on the touchscreen and press send when done. The amount of time it takes is approximately the same as it does the for the operator today to fill out a paper-based inspection report.

The benefits of electronic forklift inspections are twofold:
1. Immediate electronic notification when a lift truck fails an inspection
2. Cloud-based Dashboard for data metrics and analytics

Another area in your warehouse where you can implement digital inspections is for pallet racks. To read about the benefits of pallet rack inspections, click here.

Warehouse Safety Tip #2 – Proximity Monitoring

Proximity monitoring ‘watches’ on all four sides of the forklift or lift truck. It is constantly monitoring in all directions when the operator is driving in one direction or performing his tasks. It is tracking 3 separate (your) defined distances: Green zone (all clear) Yellow zone (warning) and Red zone (imminent danger). The AI technology built into all our solutions are constantly recording every 60 ms so you have the most accurate data for decision making.

All data is captured and reported on our cloud-based Dashboard.

Warehouse Safety Tip #3 – Impact Detection

Impact monitoring records and measures each lift truck impact individually in order to track when it occurred, the severity of the impact and who was involved when the impact happened. The AI technology is sensitive to its surroundings and when an impact occurs, it immediately records the data. This is reported on the Dashboard where you can drill down to gain deeper insights into the impact.

These insights allow you to find patterns in order to take action for training or re-training and know where impacts most frequently occur to name a few. By making these direct changes as a result of the data captured will save you in facility repairs and streamline productivity.

How Can You Track and Monitor Warehouse Safety Data?

At SIERA.AI we have helped prevent over 11,000 accidents while working with customers like Geodis, Tyson Foods, and many more. Our customers use the SIERA.AI Dashboard to monitor their warehouse safety data. As a result, they can digitally track equipment inspection failures, near misses and impacts for their industrial truck fleets across multiple facilities.

Interested in learning how you can get the same results as our customers? Fill out the form below to download our free 5-Step Forklift Safety Strategy Guide that shows you EXACTLY how to get the results you want.