When working with palletized goods stored at floor level beneath a rack beam in a typical warehouse, there are significant issues for order pickers who execute these tasks daily, including strains and stresses that can lead to major injuries, down time, and worker compensation expenses.
Tags: ergonomics, Safety & Ergonomics, rack bumper, rolling pallet, pallet truck, positioner
Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|
Above: Stock image of warehouse store and pallet rack
Pallet racks by nature are very safe storage equipment, but in any areas people interact with machinery, and heavy storage, there are dangers. A recent accident at a big box warehouse retailer helps illustrate some of the problems with busy pedestrian aisles between heavy storage racks.
Tags: Safety & Ergonomics
Posted in Pallet & Warehouse Racks|
Distribution is growing — booming, some would say — particularly in larger markets. This tend is being driven by many factors, including a sustained economic recovery and low unemployment rates. Also, e-commerce powers like Amazon are in the midst of one-day or same-day delivery guarantees that require larger, more capable distribution networks that can serve major markets faster and usually within close proximity. These factors help to create stress on labor shortages in these cities, as newer distribution facilities open and existing ones expand. Add to that, the ongoing woes with skilled labor and a generally aging labor force.
How can you cope with a tight labor market?
Tags: distribution centers, labor management, Third Party Logistics, skills gap, labor shortage, ecommerce, 3PL
Posted in Warehousing & Distribution|
Ergonomics should be wired into the design of all the processes of a modern industrial operation. Whether that means designing conveyor workstations with ergonomics in mind, utilizing work benches and stations that are adjustable for “right height” operations, adding turntables to rotate product, finding ways to reduce order pickers’ bending and stretching, or designing storage areas so that bending and stretching are minimized, well-designed operations bake ergonomics into their work processes.
One of the common areas you can attack is hand tool use. In many operations, strong younger workers may not complain about using heavy, hand-held tools for 8+ hours a day, but that stress is taking its tolls.
Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|
When heavy loads are stored on multi-level pallet racks, collapses and product falls are a primary safety concern. Busy warehouses with many workers who drive or walk between aisles of rack should find ways to reduce the chances of a disastrous event.
Stopping a collapse is an order of magnitude easier and less expensive than a single incident. Due to its interconnected nature, when pallet rack falls, it’s usually an entire row, or a series of them. Costs, in terms of damaged product, lost production time and injuries can be extreme. In many “just-in-time” manufacturing operations, losing components means losing days of production time.
So: what can you do?
Tags: Safety & Ergonomics
Posted in Pallet & Warehouse Racks|
Safety has always been important to warehousing and manufacturing, but in recent years, the emphasis has grown – and it’s no wonder.
The forklift has always been at or near the top of these concerns, due to its common use. There are nearly 900,000 forklifts in use in the United State. Forklift accidents are always in OSHA’s top ten  safety violations lists. But the reality is that despite the dangers they can present, forklifts are indispensable for material handling operations.
We sat down with Randall Chamberlain, assistant manager of Cisco-Eagle’s Safety Automation Group, to discuss some common questions involving ZoneSafe, a proximity detection technology that helps alert drivers that pedestrians are nearby as they do their work.
Tags: OSHA, training, forklift safety, sensors, dock safety
Posted in Forklift - Pedestrian Safety|
Hytrol’s Boyce Bohnam sat down with us to discuss the state of the industry and how Hytrol is adjusting to – and embracing – current trends and innovating for the future.
Posted in Manufacturing|
Loading docks are often the busiest area of any distribution facility. When trucks are being loaded or unloaded, they become a center of activity with a number of people and forklifts operating within proximity to each other. Usually this is fast work, with the need to quickly load or unload a truck. Everyone involved, from forklift drivers to warehouse workers to truck drivers to bystanders has a role to play in a safer dock operation. Here are some common issues and solutions.
OSHA lists some of the potential threats on its official workplace hazards resource.
Posted in Docks & Shipping|
We had the opportunity to sit down with Brian Neuwirth, President of UNEX, for a wide-ranging discussion on the state of manufacturing. He shared his insights on key issues facing the industry from improving customer experience to addressing the skills gap.
Tags: skills gap, internet of things, Manufacturing, labor
Posted in Manufacturing|
There are some inherent safety and security issues when it comes to pallet rack – goods failing to be appropriately stacked on the pallets, failing to shrink wrap goods on the pallet, over hanging pallets past the rack beams into the flue space, and failing to secure high dollar products being stored in rack bays. Each of these situations present hazards either in safety or security.
Tags: security, rack safety, Safety & Ergonomics, enclosure, straps, guard, netting, cage
Posted in Security|
