Visibility is an important component of safety.  When you walk your warehouse/facility don’t do it with blinders on.  Take the time to walk and smell the roses, so to speak and embrace it, it’s your domain after all, see what hidden blindspots may exist? Like the staircase below, that leads into an active traffic area. A person in a rush, distracted with their phone or not thinking of their surroundings, may walk right into a moving forklift or vehicle.  How would you correct this situation?

A easy solution would be adding signage, blinking lights or loud beeps that would alert pedestrians to the hazard and focus.  Hopefully this would cause them to slow down and look before crossing.  A painted crosswalk & xing sign is another good change that would alert drivers to pedestrians who may appear suddenly.  The most intrusive solution would be to place stop signs on either side of the crosswalk to further decrease the speed of traffic.  Don’t let an accident wait to happen for you to make changes.  Be proactive.

As you can see the only warning at all is painted on the wall. “Caution Watch Your Step”.  To me that says, my opinion, the risk manager was only out here the one time when someone tripped on the steps and that was the solution.  Talk about tunnel vision.  Don’t stay quiet about safety.

witzshared is the blog for warehouseflow advisors. If you like what you’ve read here and concerned about your businesses compliance. Give us a call. The first chat is free.