Marty here again with Warehouse and Operations as a Career! You know sometimes we kind of get focused on the definition of a word and we can forget what all it really can entail and I think Safety is one of those words for us. I asked several people, in my travels last week \u201cWhat does Safety mean to you\u201d, and I received some really good, impressive actually, answers. The thing I noticed was the answers were things that directly affected the individual. Order Selectors mentioned things like, turning in my pre-shift equipment reports, slowing down when approaching the docks or coming out of the aisles, giving the forklift drivers plenty of room, Oh, and honking my horn, I heard a lot of Honking my horn. Speaking with Forklift Operators I heard \u201cMaking eye contact with pedestrians and other equipment operators, placing my forks properly under loads, watching the tail end of my lift turning, slowing down on docks and at cross aisles, and again plenty about honking my horn. Of course, honking our horns is pretty much drilled into us as equipment operators, every training class I\u2019ve ever seen. In a couple of production facilities, it was things like, sheathing my blades properly, checking out my hand tools before using them and keeping my work stations clean and Safe. A clean work station is so important in that kind of environment, I really liked that one. In Three different facilities hydration was mentioned, I was quite impressed with those teams. Actually, I was thrilled and impressed with every person I spoke with, Safety was on their minds and they could speak to it without hesitation. But I noticed every answer, although, every answer was spot on, dealt with the individuals position or task and was very specific to what they did. I know if I had spent more time with them the list they presented to me would have been much longer and I\u2019m so glad everything mentioned dealt with their personal safety and the safety of others, but back to my point, I think sometimes the broader meanings escape us, like with Safety, so today I\u2019ve asked Joe, our WAOC Safety go to Official to call in today and help us out a bit, pointing out some of the broader, I don\u2019t know maybe some broader definition\u2019s, points or things we don\u2019t think of every day.
\nJoe, Thanks for calling in today, how have you been Sir?
\nJOE - Great, it\u2019s always a pleasure to be here with ya.
\nOne thing I\u2019ve always thought of when I think of Safety are our Warehouse Policies and Procedures. Every facility has them to one degree or another. Several are pretty standard for Auditing, wither 3rd party auditing preparing us for company, customer or regulatory audits are things like our GMP\u2019s or General Manufacturing Practices, you know like: No food or drinks in the warehouse, No gum chewing, No Spitting on the floor or in trash receptacle\u2019s, No glass containers brought into the work areas, No painted fingernails or jewelry of any kind etc. Those are safety practices too correct? And are things we should all have in the forefront of our minds!
\nJOE - Marty all rules put in place are there for a reason. Most warehouse and manufacturing facilities have some kind of preshift meeting happening. During these is a time for leaders to also review the troops if you will, This is an opportunity to make sure everyone is wearing their PPE, dress codes are met, any required announcements or info that needs to be passed along, make sure no one has on anything that can get lost in the product etc\u2026 in a warehouse environment this will be when the safety talks for equipment and PPE will also be given, cell phones are real no-no with equipment operators especially.
\nAlmost every type of facility dealing with Inbound freight or trucks should be using some type of documentation for inspecting trailers or containers bumping their docks. Quick true story, many years ago I heard about a guy opening his dock door and rolling up his trailer door and spott...