4 Ways New Technology Is Improving Warehouse Safety

• What are the most common warehouse safety incidents?
• 4 new technologies that can improve warehouse safety
• How can Remote Injury Care help you respond to warehouse safety incidents?

In the United States, thousands of warehouse workers are injured or die from preventable on-the-job accidents totaling more than 4.6 million recorded incidents each year. Slips, trips, and falls are the most common, and given that the number of warehouse workers has more than doubled since 2010, the volume of these incidents is increasing. 

The cost of these workplace injuries is staggering at $170 billion annually. What can supply chain and logistics companies do to improve warehouse safety? How can employers respond appropriately to any workplace safety incidents if they occur?

We know the top workplace injuries are musculoskeletal in nature; slips and falls and strains from repetition, make up an inordinate number of these incidents. Where do these incidents typically occur? The top five locations for warehouse injuries include:

1. Docks and loading areas
2. Forklifts
3. Conveyors
4. Materials storage
5. Anywhere there is manual lifting and handling

Forklifts are of particular concern. Nearly 100 people are killed each year in forklift accidents and almost 35,000 are injured. Pallet jacks are another area of concern. Forklifts can damage them and they’re easy to overload. 

It’s human nature that repetitive use of any tool can cause complacency, but it’s up to the warehousing company to continually remind their workforce about the safety rules that protect them from harm. Companies must do this for all kinds of reasons, but from a practical perspective, to cut down on the exorbitant costs of workplace injury. Even one worker injury is too many from a human perspective, but from a financial consideration it costs between $38,000 to $150,000 per accident incident.

In a warehouse, speed is the driver of productivity but also the cause of human mistakes that lead to accidents and injury. How can new technologies help companies improve their warehouse safety and cut down on accidents and injuries? 

Because of the high cost of workplace injuries, warehouse facility managers are always looking for ways to improve on the job safety. Today, several cost-effective technologies exist to help warehouses become a little safer for their workforce. These tools literally can pay for themselves by cutting OSHA recordables and keeping workers safer. 

Below are four warehouse safety improvement tools to consider. 

1. Loading Dock Motion Sensors and Alarms

Occupational Health & Safety reports that yard workers “face some of the most dangerous surroundings of any warehouse employee.” There’s a lot of ambient noise at a loading dock, and the worker simply may not hear a truck backing toward them—with disastrous results. 

Too often, we witness injuries from backing trucks or forklifts that rumble out of a trailer into a pedestrian’s path. The tools that can protect loading dock workers include a motion sensor above the dock entrance that can detect a backing vehicle from 30 feet away. When the sensor detects a backing truck, an alarm system sounds an audible alert and flashes lighting that warns workers of the approaching vehicle. It increases the ability of the yard team to exit a hazardous situation. 

These tools can also be used to detect human activity or a forklift inside a trailer or that the trailer itself is secured to the dock. When a forklift or a person is inside the trailer, a motion sensor light can warn yard workers to watch their step.

2. Mechanisms to Prevent Trailer Separation and Hazards

Another common accident involves trailer separation. It happens when the semi separates from the dock, resulting in injury or even death of forklift and warehouse workers. In addition to trailer creep, yard workers face the possibility of landing gear collapse or the upending of the trailer as the weight distribution changes as the freight is moved out to the warehouse. 

The latest tools can lock the semi-trailer directly onto the loading dock with hooks, wheel-locks, and under levelers. When you combine these features with motion sensors that sound audible and visual warnings to alert warehouse workers, you start to shift the risk to a more acceptable level.

3. A Unified Loading Dock Operating System and Control Panel

The warehouse loading docks are made up of a variety of moving parts. These tools such as levelers, overhead doors, and vehicle restraints all typically operate independently. However, today, software exists to integrate all of these disparate features into one unified operating system. This gives you a single point of power for all dock features, which is an important safety mechanism. 

As an additional benefit, the ability to automate manual safety steps can improve the processes that used to put your employees at risk. For example, the typical way of securing a vehicle to the dock carries a level of unnecessary risk. When a semi comes into the yard, the worker runs out to set wheel chocks on the trailer. This is both time and labor intensive, and the risk of human error is high. 

Control software can automatically control restraints on a trailer to secure it to the dock. This can cut the risk that a trailer will pull away with a forklift still inside it. These control panels can also require a controlled sequence of events to ensure a safer loading and unloading process. It can take away the element of human error that comes from forgetting or skipping a step in the sequence.

4. Remote Technology to Provide Immediate Access to Healthcare

Most companies cannot provide a 24/7, medically trained work safety specialists to cover their warehouse workforce. As a result, the majority of injuries, even the most minor sprains and strains, end with the employee in the emergency room. Unfortunately, the ER has become the go-to point of care for any workplace incident, which unnecessarily drives up costs, lost work time, and the number of OSHA recordable events. 

Mitigate this issue by using an online software to provide your workforce with an immediate connection to an orthopedic specialist trained to treat workplace injuries. 

OrthoLive’s Remote Injury Care brings an orthopedic professional directly to your employee on the job site 24/7/365 who can triage the on-site injury to determine if an ER trip is even necessary, saving you money and providing necessary support for your workers to prevent injuries and their negative effects.

Since most workplace accidents are minor muscular strains and sprains, there is rarely a reason to take time to go to an ER. Winding up in an ER over muscle strain or an ankle roll is unnecessary, especially when the clinical teams will likely refer your worker to an orthopedic specialist for triage and continued treatment. 

A solution to this problem is OrthoLive Remote Injury Care, software that connects you to a medical expert through any digital device connected to the internet. This technology allows you to dial up a quick injury assessment, provide treatment immediately for your injured employee, and get them back to work. This service has proven to:

• Cut injury costs by up to 80%
• Treat nearly 90% of all on-the-job injuries
• Reduce OSHA recordable events
• Improve employee morale

OrthoLive Remote Injury Care offers case management and physical therapy to get your employee back to work more quickly. This service also cuts your warehouse injury risk by counseling your teams on the importance of workplace ergonomics.

Interested in learning more about keeping your team safe? Check out our on-demand webinar on using telemedicine for reducing workplace injuries–and their associated costs.