Company News » Yellow Card For Warehouse Safety

21-01-2008

Whenever vehicles and people work in close proximity there is risk. Factories, warehouses and construction sites are all such environments, with materials constantly on the move and workers always in close proximity. Designing systems and practices that keep man and machine apart are vital but easy to enforce; lapses in the regular inspection of equipment as recommended by the HSE are just as important but often impossible to spot.

Warehouses can be dangerous places, even when all the racking systems and mechanical handling equipment is safety checked. Fully laden racking systems stretch up to cavernous ceilings, and fork lift trucks hurry below, lifting and carrying everything from cat food to car parts in a business which stands or falls on efficiency and speed. And in any business when people are under pressure, be they company directors or forklift operators, the fundamentals of safety are too.

In 2003/04 the storage and warehousing industry reported 4,940 work related accidents to the HSE and Local Authorities, and 12 per cent of these were classified as major injuries such as fractures and amputations. Unsafe machinery played a significant role, and the HSE stresses the importance of daily inspections to ensure the safe condition of warehouse vehicles suggesting that operators are given a list of daily checks to sign off before each shift.
At Nissan’s main UK distribution centre in Leicestershire, each of its 72 forklifts and other mechanical handling vehicles used a system of inspection books with check lists and sign-off slips as recommended. But when books were reviewed after incidents or during spot checks it was often discovered that daily inspections had been overlooked by operators.

Nissan’s warehouse Facilities Manager Steve McDonnell needed a system that could be carried on the vehicles and checked at a glance without operators having to stop work, one that could not be overlooked at the start of each shift and one that would make it obvious to maintenance staff when parked mechanical handling equipment required attention. ‘The SG World Safe -Truck Inspection System was different to anything we had seen before and offered a tick box system which met all our needs. It was a very visual system that worked at a glance, and could be used for all our mechanical handling equipment and much other warehousing equipment too,’ commented Mr McDonnell.

The companies worked together to create a bespoke check-list suitable for all the Nissan warehouse equipment including racking systems, and distilled all the items considered vital for a start-of-shift inspection onto a single tick-box list. The system comes in a highly visible yellow inspection wallet which remains prominently on the vehicle at all times and incorporates a see-through pocket for the green or red passed/failed inspection tag printed on the back of each tear out daily sheet. After the daily inspection the tags are dated by hand to show that the vehicle has been checked, and the red/green code creates a simple system which identifies equipment requiring unscheduled maintenance, or confirms that the machine has been checked and is safe.

A cheque book sized inspection pad ensures that all critical items are looked at and signed off, and a duplicate is retained in the pad to build up an inspection history for each vehicle or item of equipment. Safe-Truck ensures compliance with the HSE best practice guidelines given in its ‘Safety in Working with Lift Trucks’ publication that trucks should be inspected at the beginning of each shift.

‘The coloured green or red inspection tag is a very clear indication to an engineer walking along a line of parked equipment if any of them need attention. The system keeps our vehicles safe, ensures that the operators have done their inspection and also results in failed vehicles getting rapid attention. It is also very simple to explain and requires only minimal training to use; we brought it in one afternoon and went live with it the following morning,’ added Mr McDonnell.