Risks in warehouse operations are always going to exist in some form, so your warehouse health and safety policy must be relevant and up to date.
Warehousing is changing rapidly and radically, and this requires an approach to risk that’s dynamic and forward-thinking.
Warehouse best practices concerning health and safety shouldn’t simply be responsive. Risk management needs to be proactive.
Warehouse Risks and Hazards
There are potential risks and hazards common to all warehouses, including:
- The physical work environment
- Tasks and how staff perform them
- Equipment and materials in or close by to the workplace
- How people and various pieces of equipment interact.
In the warehouse environment, there is constant movement. This increases risks in warehouse operations. There is constant interaction between people, equipment and objects.
This interaction includes:
- Unloading goods and transferring them
- Storing them
- Picking up orders from shelves and preparing them for transport
- Loading orders on vehicles ready for delivery.
How Should Warehouses Control Risk?
A traditional way of controlling risk for warehouse staff to notify management about risks and hazards and for management to then act to update its health and safety procedures.
But while this has its place, it is very much a reactive process, whereby risk is managed in response to information received.
There also needs to be a strong proactive element in risk control in the warehouse environment. Typically, this is in the form of a warehouse inspection.
However, while this can be an effective tool in controlling risk, it can also be time-consuming and disruptive.
If you’re checking the entire warehouse, including its inventory, equipment and health and safety standards, this may seem like a daunting task.
But it’s not something the modern warehouse can afford to ignore or put off. According to the British Safety Council, there are around 1,300 hospitalisations a year in the UK due to forklift accidents.
The quicker you identify risks, the earlier you can act to control them, ensuring your workforce’s safety. But at the same time, with mounting pressures on warehouse efficiency, you can’t let your inspection procedures disrupt your workflow and productivity.
There has to be an answer to making proactive risk management in warehouses more efficient.
Technology and Warehouse Health and Safety Policy
The Warehouse Auditor app is an intuitive and dedicated user-friendly software platform for reporting and resolving warehouse and logistics issues.
Use it as a proactive tool to improve your warehouse operations and take the pain out of warehouse inspections.
How can you be sure of the app’s effectiveness? Simply sign up for our FREE 30-day trial and discover the benefits for yourself.
