How to Manage Warehouse Safety Hazards

Nearly one out of every 20 warehouse workers falls victim to a workplace injury or accident every year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

With numbers like that, it’s no surprise identifying safety hazards in the warehouse — then finding ways to address and improve them — is an essential topic in today’s warehouse management circles.

Yet maintaining a safe and effective warehouse is about more than loss-incident prevention. It’s about integrity — walking the walk and talking the talk to keep your workers safe, your credibility sincere and your entire warehouse operations harmonized for profits and people. At Material Handling, we have compiled some industry-leading ways to do just that.

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OSHA’s Warehouse Safety Requirements

Every workplace carries health and safety risks. It’s why regulatory bodies and workplace laws exist in the first place, acknowledging these hazards and creating protective measures as common sense as they are economical.

For the warehousing industry, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cites ten of the most common violations in warehouse safety standards. Each year, these ten violations result in the highest rates of worker injury, equipment downtimes and — most severely — fatalities that sour the entire warehousing industry’s reputation.

Rather than focus on the results of these violations, though, these infractions give us a look into the roots of warehouse safety problems themselves.

Forklift violations: OSHA cites forklifts as the most dangerous piece of equipment in a warehouse, accounting for nearly a third of all its injuries.
Hazard area miscommunications: Any area in a warehouse where an employee can come into contact with dangerous materials, chemicals or agents must be labeled so. Employees are required to train in hazardous materials’ proper identification and handling.
Electric wiring mishaps: Issues with electrical wiring components and methods in a closed warehouse environment can cause power outages, sparks, fires, stock loss and equipment damage. Exposed wires, worn wires or haphazardly placed extension cords are notorious culprits.
Electrical system design mishaps: Similarly, glitches or faults in the entire design of a warehouse’s electric grid can cause all the same issues cited above, only on a larger, more dangerous scale.
Exit problems: Not correctly labeling warehouse exits is a significant compliance violation, as well as obstructed exit pathways, doorways or a lack of exit signs altogether.
No guarding for floor and wall openings or holes: Safety guards to protect and designate spatial changes include, but are not limited to, the presence of modular and machines railings, barriers, bollards, columns and more. These should provide buffers from hazardous open pits, ditches, tanks, vats and even staircases.
Mechanical power transmissions accidents: Apparatuses and equipment with power transmissions require distinct operational training, maintenance, safety guards, dedicated equipment manuals and more.
Improper PPE: Unavailable, underutilized or flat-out missing personal protective equipment (PPE) is a cardinal sin in the warehouse industry. Things like missing respiratory protection for certain warehouse conditions are particularly severe violations.
Lockout and tagout procedural problems: Effective protocol on how to safely power down any electric, pneumatic, hydraulic or chemical machinery — plus communicate that power down to the crew — is essential.
Fire extinguisher malfunctions: The most common OSHA violations here include lack of fire extinguishers in necessary spaces, misplaced fire extinguishers or extinguisher units that don’t get proper monthly inspections or recharged after use.

Common Safety Hazards in the Warehouse and Ways to Improve Them

Warehouse hazards are a reality in the industry. It rests on the entire crew to step up to the plate, following set protocol for safe equipment and machine operations, floor traffic, work habits, PPE apparel and much more.

Yet warehouse managers and supervisors play a special role in this. Setting those protocols in the first place, implementing them on the floor, administering compliance and preventing warehouse safety hazards ultimately falls under their helms.

We’ve got a few safety tips to aid in managing some of today’s top warehousing hazards — but more importantly, also some ways to mitigate them.

1. Warehouse Dock Hazards

Nearly a fourth of all warehouse injuries strike on loading docks. The most common of these include oversights like backing forklifts off the dock or forklift turnover due to exceeding loading weights. Yet other accidents aren’t unheard of, such as trips, slips and falls on slippery outdoor loading docks, products or equipment striking an employee, or even employees getting pinched between loading dock vehicles and a dock wall.

Loading and unloading docks run central to a high-functioning and productive warehouse. With that in mind, the solution to dock hazards has less to do with stringent oversight and more to do with outfitting docks with risk-mitigating machinery.

Warehouse Dock Safety Solutions

Electric pallet trucks and hand trucks: To complement the lifting and load-bearing operations of dock forklifts, consider lighter and more upgraded hand trucks or mobile electric pallet trucks built to handle reoccurring heavy loads.
Bollards: Consider outfitting dock edges or perimeters with bollards, preventing forklift movements from getting too close to dangerous areas.
Overhead door tracks: Protective guards bolted in front of overhead dock and loading dock door tracks prevent these items from equipment collisions and downtime-causing damage.
Work positioners: A practical piece of equipment to outfit warehouse docks, these lightweight and nimble machines make loading and unloading in tight and busy dock areas much safer. Some work positioner models can even carry as much as 3,000 pounds.
Dock checks: Routinely inspect the conditions of the dock, particularly its dock plate security, ladders and stairs. Ensure dock plates can support the weight of forklifts, pallets and hand trucks. Discourage employee “dock jumping,” as well as prohibit backing up or reversing forklifts.

2. Forklift Hazards

Forklifts are staples in a warehouse. It’s almost impossible to imagine floor operations without them. Yet forklift accidents constitute one of the most significant hazards in the industry. OSHA data shows that forklifts cause nearly 35,000 serious injuries and over 62,000 non-serious injuries, on average, each year.

Address forklift hazards by first reviewing operator training and certificates for your crew. Conduct routine vehicle inspections and preventative maintenance, particularly on forklift tires, lights, horns, fluids, brakes and the load-supporting components like the forks. Never allow anyone under 18 to operate a forklift.

Forklift Hazard Solutions

Upgraded pallets and containers: Top quality and correctly loaded pallets are one of the easiest ways to improve safety in a warehouse. They maintain the physics of moving vehicles like forklifts, balance their centers of gravity and ensure their “stability triangle” is never disrupted. For maximum safety, purchase stock-specific pallets and industrial containers, such as pallets built for chemical drums or containers that are food and produce-compliant.
Pallet stackers: The simplicity and compact design of pallet stackers make it easier for the operator to maneuver and handle. These units are great for addressing projects that take place in more confined spaces that forklifts would not be able to have access to.
Aisle markings and floor safety tape: Indoor forklift speeds should never exceed 10 mph. What’s more, forklifts should only be traveling down designated aisles and in lanes clearly marked by warehouse floor safety tape.
Safety posts and racks: To further control forklift and warehouse vehicle traffic, denote aisles and maintain a proper distance between forklifts and valuable warehouse equipment.

3. Conveyor System Hazards

Pin and nip points are the primary safety concern when it comes to warehouse conveyor systems. The most frequent conveyor-belt accidents happen when employees get caught in areas where there’s simply no clearance between conveyor mechanical parts and themselves, especially rotating cogs or mechanisms.

What’s more, employees who routinely work on the conveyor belt in positions like filling boxes or loading boxes onto pallets are subject to repetitive motion injuries. Together, pin points and repetitive motions qualify conveyor systems as a warehouse concern — but with the following solutions.

Conveyor-System Solutions

Conveyer guards: Conveyor guards are specially formed to fit around conveyor stands. They help prevent not only employees from getting caught at inopportune points but equipment like lift trucks or forklifts from accidentally ramming into belt components.
Machinery guards: Protective warehouse barriers provide an extra layer of defense for a conveyor belt’s most mechanically essential parts — as well as counteracts pin and nip-point contact.
Safety railings: Many warehouses choose to install custom safety railings alongside conveyor belts, or surround the entire conveyor system with standing and mobile railings, all to keep employees safe and vigilant.

4. Material Storage Hazards

Any improperly stored or arranged stock item falls under the scope of OSHA’s material-storage violations. These include infractions like unevenly stacked shelved items, disorganized racks, stock removed more than one at a time and heavier loads placed on higher racks when they should be on lower and middle ones. Other material storage violations have cited obstructed aisles or passageways not kept clear for workers and vehicles.

As warehouses continue to specialize, more and more violations have to do with improper storage containers themselves, mismatched to what they hold. This is a serious — and life-threatening — hazard that requires immediate remedying, as inappropriate containers risk leaks and toxic spills.

Each of the major types of hazardous warehouse materials should have its own storage cabinet — from corrosives and environmentally hazardous materials to flammable liquids, propane cylinders and paint and ink. Store these containers at eye or waist level, never higher. Label each cabinet accordingly and have easily accessible Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for each chemical or material contained within.

Material Storage Solutions

Corrosive and acid storage units: To maintain OSHA and NFPA Code 30 compliance, such dangerous materials require chemical storage cabinets fabricated from certain base materials and finished in things like corrosive-resistant urethane.
Flammable liquids cabinets: Cabinets for flammable liquids contain specialty non-sparking doors, shelves and fabrication materials. Station fire lockers away from any possible ignition sources — and never allow smoking inside the warehouse.
Environmental storage: Environmentally sensitive materials require equally sensitive environmental storage lockers, particularly for the health and safety of your crew.
Gas cylinder cabinets: Gas and propane storage comes with its own list of regulations. Adequately labeled aluminum and steel cabinets are an industry standard to store and protect these hazardous materials, keeping them out of reach while not in use.
Paint and ink storage units: Storing paint and ink on-site is made easier with shelving explicitly configured for these common warehouse materials.

5. Manual Material Handling Hazards

Jobs requiring repetitive lifting, carrying, pushing and prying are physically taxing on your workers. Support them and reduce injury rates with common-sense solutions. Always store the heaviest or bulkiest stock at waist height, and reduce worker fatigue and overexertion with a fleet of material handling equipment suited to various loads and tasks.

Material Handling Solutions

Heavy transport dollies: Contemporary dollies come in many models and configurations, able to cart up to 80,000 pounds, yet are simple to steer and use.
Powered hand carts: Battery-powered hand cards alleviate your employees from pushing and pulling heavy loads over and over again. They come in a range of configurations.
Electric and scissor lift pallet trucks. Some loads simply shouldn’t be handled manually. For these, electric or scissor lift pallet trucks are the intuitive solution for the safety and efficiency of your workforce.
Deluxe hand trucks: You can select between stock-specific models, like appliance hand trucks, or models with cross-industry carting versatility.
Machinery skates: Adjustable machine skates explicitly built for a warehousing environment maximizes porting and material transfer speeds.
Hydraulic furniture mover: For the heaviest stock items or even for transferring other small pieces of equipment, a hydraulic furniture mover makes the job quicker and safer.

6. Charging Station Hazards

Spills, fires and explosions are only a few domains that court compliance risks if warehouse charging stations are not properly labeled and maintained. In areas where volatile or toxic materials get stored, where specialty machinery runs or particular warehouse operations take place, OSHA requires instructional signs and alerts to be posted, plus nearby fire extinguishers, eyewash stations and appropriate PPE.

Charging Station Solutions

Proper floor signs: Stick industry warnings and cautionary symbols directly on the floor to alert workers they have entered a particular zone of the warehouse, provide directions or relay instructions.
Mounted caution and warning signs: Mounted warning signs placed at eye level on relevant machines, storage units and equipment serve as a critical visual safety reminder.
Designated aisle markings: Aisle markings will direct safe traffic flows and make employees even more alert to their surroundings.
Modular guards: Whether partitioning warehouse areas, fencing off hazardous work spots or helping protect expensive equipment, modular guards keep safety a number-one priority.

7. Warehouse Ergonomic Hazards

Musculoskeletal disorders in warehouse workers are, unfortunately, not uncommon. They’re among the top culprits for employee missed or lost shifts, particularly when it comes to repetitive warehouse motions, movements and improper lifting techniques. These seemingly harmless activities cause physical and mental fatigue — and make your employees work harder, not smarter. A warehouse must, whenever possible, provide workers with premium powered equipment that translates into ergonomic efficiency.

Warehouse Ergonomic Solutions

Lift tables: The use of lift tables should be common-place on your warehouse floor, whether electric, hydraulic, pneumatic or another power grade. Lift tables help alleviate rates of everything from back and knee injuries to torn rotator cuffs.
Work positioners: Work positioners make lifting, stacking and stocking operation far less strenuous.
Drum lifters: Manually lifting drums is not only an incredibly inefficient and awkward motion but, depending on the drum’s content, it could also be hazardous. Drum-handling equipment secures stable lifts and transfers without putting workers’ health at risks.
Adjustable aerial work platforms: Work platforms reduce the need for employees to repetitively stretch and reach to uncomfortable lengths, plus provide a convenient alternative for accessing high storage racks.
Pallet trucks and jacks: Trucks and jacks are ideal for a range of material-handling tasks, plus comfortably sized and simple to operate.

8. General Warehouse Worker Safety Hazards

Your team is your most valuable asset. Preparing and protecting your crew lies at the heart of all warehouse safety procedures. The best supervisors and managers are continually asking themselves what they can do to make the work lives of their team simple and easy yet engaging and intuitive. A well-rounded warehouse safety program can do all that.

Warehouse Worker Safety Solutions

Safety incentives: Promote a safety-first culture with reward programs designed to acknowledge and amplify safety commitments from your employees. Small signs of appreciation and gratitude go a long way.
Stretching: Hold educational sessions on proper stretching routines. Encourage workers to take stretch breaks. This directly addresses many of the musculoskeletal disorders cited above but also helps boost energy levels and general employee wellbeing.
Safety checks and checklists: Have a checklist for daily warehouse domains. Review that checklist as each shift begins and ends. Complement these operation-specific lists with those tailored towards safety, such as a set lockout-tagout checklist and a set PPE inspection schedule.
Periods of rest: Every four hours worked equates to a minimum of fifteen minutes of break for an employee. Consider dissuading employees from skipping breaks or working through lunch. Research shows this actually leads to worker dissatisfaction and burnout — not increased productivity.
Practicing proper lifting techniques: Employ mandatory, task-specific ergonomic training. Review how to lift using mainly the legs while keeping the back in a natural, upright position, how to minimize arm and shoulder twisting and how to properly shift weight while carrying loads.
Safety training: Have your crew — not management — elect a safety committee tasked with getting more insight, researching new equipment or safety protocols and maintaining compliant training schedules.

9. Warehouse Hazard Communications

Communication strategies are vital ways to avoid some of the most expensive and dangerous warehouse safety hazards. Similar to charging stations, your warehouse needs to be outfitted to relay dangers posed by chemicals, otherwise it courts both internal and external compliance repercussions.

Warehouse Hazard Communications Solutions

Instructional signs: Bright and clear signs characterizing key pieces of information or directions are easy for workers to understand with just a quick glance.
Custom safety tape: Specialty arranged floor and wall tape communicates a precautionary environment, plus provides a no-fuss way to organize the larger busy warehouse atmosphere.
Mounted warehouse signs: Again, signs boldly and clearly relay essential safety information, either pre-printed or custom-made warehouse signs.

Future Technology for Managing Warehouse Safety Hazards

The future of warehouse management is about enhancement, not overhaul.

This is an important concept for managers to understand. Rather than seeing tomorrow’s warehouse safety measures as endless computerized machines, equipment and automation straight from some sci-fi novel, it’s far more likely tomorrow’s industry technology will enhance and bolster what measures we currently have — not replace them.

1. Tech-Outfitted PPE

Gloves with thermal and chemical sensors. Protective goggles that sync with equipment diagnostics and dashboards. Exoskeleton suits made from lighter, more comfortable yet stronger nanomaterials. Tomorrow’s line of respiratory, eye, ear and hand protective gear could include small but strategic features that help warehouse workers make better — and safer — in-the-moment decisions.

2. Voice-Directed Receiving, Picking and Packaging Warehouse Management Systems

Voice-activated and speech-recognition software that can integrate with current warehouse management systems (WMS) will see broader industrial applications. Hands-free and available in real-time, workers can ask the software questions or access the WMS by speaking into their headset, then listening for everything from their pick lists to stock replenishment schedules in a simple, paper-free voice “catalog.”

3. Pick-to-Light Systems

Another trending warehousing efficiency tactic, pick-to-light systems use visual signals rather than auditory — as with voice-directed picking — or paper-based ones — the standard today — to complete pick lists. Warehouse operators move around the floor, following light cues installed above racks and bins to fulfill their orders. Workers are directed to bins or stationed at fixed ones, receiving their order-fulfillment cues as they scan order-specific barcodes on picking container and rack sensors.

4. Improved RFID Tagging

Radio-frequency ID (RFID) tags have already established themselves in the warehousing world as a more efficient alternative to traditional barcode scanning systems. It’s ideal for warehouse supply chain management, as it allows for workers to more readily identify, log and track stock as well as access key stock data directly in the WMS.

Tomorrow’s warehousing RFID iteration will take these principles and expand upon them, making domains like mass, instantaneous tag encoding, stray or missing item identification, tag aggregation and inventory cycle counts even faster and more effective.

The Importance to Training to Prevent Warehouse Safety Hazards

The Importance of Training When Preventing Warehouse Safety Hazards

The backbone of a safe work environment is proper training. Managing and preventing tomorrow’s warehouse accidents means doing everything you can today to make sure your crew is aware, instructed and empowered to work safely and sufficiently across all situations. You can accomplish this through a well-rounded warehouse safety program that includes the following:

1. PPE Requirements

All your warehouse workers are entitled to the safest working conditions, with access to the four categories of personal protective equipment — respiratory, eye, ear and hand gear. PPE should be clean and well cared for. It must be worn in any and all situations where employees can come into contact with physical, electrical or mechanical hazards as well as chemical, radiological or toxic materials. PPE programs are OSHA-mandated.

2. Ergonomic Manual Work Strategies

General ergonomic training, as well as operations-specific training, should be implemented throughout the workforce. Teach employees not only the best way to lift heavy materials, if required, but to use equipment and resources as their go-to job strategy. In this, you encourage the health and wellness of the very people your warehouse relies upon without sacrificing speed and productivity.

3. How to Identify Unsafe Conditions

Hazard training and communication is another important inclusion in your warehouse’s safety program. Your employees must be well-versed and able to identify hazardous materials contained within warehouse walls, understand proper labeling techniques, relevant storage units and have easy access to the MSDS. On top of this, workers should be empowered to speak up about general safety concerns, whether they need more PPE or they see warehouse vehicles mishandled.

4. Clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Every single warehouse job, task and piece of equipment must come with a standard operating procedure. Certifications to complement equipment usage and warehouse roles are a must. A schedule of training should be set and followed, plus updates and compliance tests as seen fit. SOPs should also take into consideration training employees on essential knowledge like standard lockout/tagout protocol, material handling, warehouse traffic patterns and which aisles have which designated flows.

5. Health and Safety Warehouse Manual

Your warehouse’s safety program should be printed in a complete health and safety manual. Each employee should receive a copy their first day on the job.

Outfit Your Warehouse With Safety-First Supplies From Material-Handling.com

At Material Handling, we speak warehouse. We’ve been providing premium safety and ergonomically focused warehouse equipment for more than 35 years for partners across industries — and we want to do the same for you.

Our product and material-handling specialists are ready to answer any questions on warehouse commodities. Reach out here or give us a call at (877) 350-2729 today.

Post updated on October 24, 2018