Warehouse Health and Safety Risks

In generating prosperous business continuity strategies, every institute completes a sequence of risk assessment workouts. Devoid of this broad risk assessment, it would be dreadful for a business like a warehouse to prioritize its essential needs. It thus makes it hard to consider the most likely disruptive happenings to impact your operations? Your customers? Your employees? Your suppliers? Research suggests common risks tackling a warehouse continuity to include: falls from height, falling objects, trafficking movements, machinery operations, fire, etc. (Dwivedi, 2016). The assessments in this paper are helpful to business to employ it as a guide of discerning through some of the potential hazards.

At times, employees might fall from higher grounds and could suffer simple or even life-threatening injuries should they fall while ascending a racking. As a safety measure, all staff has an obligation of adhering to the policy of never climbing up to higher heights in the absence of closer supervision. A worker could also suffer simple or terminal injuries if they fall while changing a socket or a lighting bulb(Dwivedi, 2016). A warehouse could opt to use an exclusive forklift cage that assists staff in terms of climbing higher ceilings to change a socket. But still, a good warehouse should frequently train its staff to consider counter checking the cage to certify its stability.

During movement or racking, objects that trip and fall could strike an employee or any other individual present in the scene. They may suffer terrible injuries. Presently, a warehouse needs to design its racking to suit for the specific loads (Richards, 2011). Besides, the employees also need to report any such occurrence to ignite action immediately. A warehouse also needs to institute a refurbishment system that makes certain that any defective pallets no longer exist within the operating perimeter. The system also advocates for any individual, be it staff, employee or a visitor, to always put on protective gears before gaining entrance into the warehouse. It includes submission of protective gloves for all members to assist in times of handing the pallets.

During deliveries and departures, every warehouse is known to involve extreme traffic movements. Besides dreadful fractures and injuries, at worst, cases of fatalities are caused by a visitor or a staff being hit by a truck(Dwivedi, 2016). Objects or individuals falling from moving vehicles leads to paramount casualties, at worst, death. A warehouse should design a suitable floor and traffic routes for the trucks. It includes truck routes being void of any form of obstruction. Staff needs to clean any spillages without any hesitation. It is also important to designate parking areas, far from the truck routes. Making available tolerable signage as hazard warnings is also a significant step to reduce risks during movement and departure of deliveries.

Fire is also a factor to consider in this risk assessment (Popov et al., 2016). For instance, it is hazardous to put together in bulk, materials that are easily burnable as fire ignitions might occur through faulting of electrical wires. Should any trapping of a visitor or an employee occur within the premises, they may suffer from smoke inhalation that leads to potential fatalities. It is thus essential for the warehouse design to re-consider putting in place fire resisting apparatus. Fire exits also require vivid markings (Richards, 2011). Identifying good locations to erect fire extinguishers takes the turn as another significant step in limiting fire damages. It follows suit with making sure that at all times, fire extinguishers and fire exits do not have any obstructions at all.

To conclude, this paper best serves as an example of a practical guide when it comes to considering safety measures for your warehouse (Dwivedi, 2016). It helps best manage unexpected incidents by providing visibility into the probable disruptions afore their occurrence.

 

 

References

Dwivedi, A. N. (2016). Innovative solutions for implementing global supply chains in emerging markets.

Richards, G. (2011). Warehouse management: A complete guide to improving efficiency and minimizing costs in the modern warehouse. London: Kogan Page.

Popov, G., Lyon, B. K., & Hollcroft, B. (2016). Risk assessment: A practical guide to assessing operational risks.

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