For order pickers, packers and others in industrial facilities, warehouse ergonomics is critical to both safety and effectiveness. The way you store and pick can enhance productivity — or hamper it. In an age of labor shortages and spiraling costs, it pays to design for ergonomics. The core of that is where you place items for picking and processing.

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced the Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety violations for the fiscal year 2020. While last year was certainly a year unlike any other and created many a new normal in terms of warehouse operations, the safety violations represented are oldies but goodies for sure. There were some chart movements, but the top 2 remain unchanged. Cue up your long-distance dedication, and let’s start the countdown.

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You should always analyze the economy of movement for repetitive tasks like assembly, packing, picking and repair. Imagine reaching to the same shelf, for the same carton, to pull the same part. How many times a shift does someone make that reach? How many working days a year? How many years? Shaving time and effort off a simple repetitive motion can shave time off your process and improve ergonomics over the years.

To do that, look at how many times–and places–your people reach for things on a daily basis.

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Vertical reciprocating conveyors—or VRCs—make it easy to move materials between levels, such as onto a mezzanine or down to basement storage. As you might expect, this equipment involves enclosures and access features for optimum safety. In this installment of our Shoptalk series, employee-owner Christine Perry offers a quick look at these features.

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Ergonomics in the warehouse is a constant focus that each operation looks to improve. You want your workers to perform better each day while reducing factors that contribute to missed time and injuries. One way to achieve this is by adding workbenches to your facility. When built to the right specifications, workbenches help people work faster, more accurately and more ergonomically. That’s why we’ve added a new guide to workstations.

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Pallet racks are safe and stable storage for pallets and bulk loads in warehouses, factories and other facilities, but you should be aware of the kind of dangers they pose when misapplied, modified or neglected. In any safety program, you’re always looking for risks you can prevent. What are some avoidable risks when it comes to pallet rack?

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As with all equipment in your facility, your workers are important parts of the operations process and the bottom line. Keeping them safe is always a high priority, but just as important is making sure they can be comfortable (or at least as comfortable as allowed) so that performance and productivity have less of a chance of faltering.  You want to protect the human body from unnecessary strain and stress in all situations, but while standing is an area easy to offer help and reduce fatigue.

Applying the use of anti-fatigue mats throughout your facility can not only aid in this never-ending quest to protect workers but also enhance areas not thought of as important for continuous care.

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Facility safety for many warehouses focuses on industrial traffic and vehicles like forklifts or stackers, and no wonder—the damage that a simple mistake can do, and the people that can be harmed—is considerable. There are many varieties of guardrail systems, and they all function a little differently but have the same role: solid protection for a critical area when all else fails.

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All warehouses have fire risks, ranging in severity. Facilities flammable loads like paper, aerosols, liquors or fiber are at higher risk than others, but any load on wood or plastic pallets can catch fire.  For instance, manufacturing facilities with airborne debris are at more risk than those storing ceramics or steel components. While storage racks are not among leading causes of warehouse fires, (or even a cause, except for their loads) they can play an important part in reducing spread and damage.

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As we navigate this new age of Covid-19 and the distancing associated with it on all fronts of our lives, keeping areas within your facility safe and spaced becomes not only a priority now, but leads to further efficiency for operations in the future. Operations that utilize efficient means for creating visual clues within their warehouse showcase a more productive work environment that also keeps employees and equipment free from potential hazards.

One method to aid in this endeavor is floor marking. By marking areas in your facility, you highlight risks, outline areas for equipment and people, direct traffic and showcase safety considerations. In short, just by adding some color to your floor, you make your entire facility easier to navigate.

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