Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:06 — 11.3MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
WAOC is in the southern states this week, Georgia actually! Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I had the opportunity to visit with a couple of facilities over here, one to speak to Safety, nothing going on, just a short follow-up visit! It’s always nice to talk Safety to such a group of young men and women, maybe get some questions answered and at the very least bring that Culture of Safety to the forefront of the Operations! My other stop was to talk about Training Programs. 2 Weeks ago we were over at the Distribution Training Center and I shared a little bit on what all they had going on and since we’ve been talking about a lot of the positions or career positions lately I thought I’d share a little from this week’s trip to the group!
Some of the high points about this kind of trip is getting to spend so much time in the warehouse with all the employees. I even had a chance to run some pallets around the building for the lift drivers! It was so encouraging to hear from almost everyone I spoke with that safety was honestly a part of their work day. Everyone I spoke with, at both facilities, talked about their daily start up meetings and how much they enjoyed how their supervisors would speak about something that had nearly happened recently or earlier in the week. To me that shows an engaged and strong supervisor. He or she is not only taking care of their company but their employees as well. It makes us as employees feel good too doesn’t it? Being a part of the program just makes us all that much safer!
Since I’m typically walking the buildings, shaking hands with employees and meeting with front line Leads and Supervisors I’m almost always asked something like “is something wrong”, or, “what are you looking for”, maybe something along the lines of “why are you watching us”. Some 3rd party auditors or company safety team members, trainers have commented to me before that their employees are suspicious or conspiracy seekers. You know, myself as an employee, I just see these types of questions for what they are! Human nature wants to know what is going on, anything or anyone out of the ordinary in our workspace should invoke a question, and as you know here at WAOC we view questions and communication as our, the employees, ticket for promotions and advancement! So today I thought I’d share a few of the things anyone may be looking for, your lead, supervisor, and safety director, or position trainer, maybe an auditor of some type, even a tenured or new associate may notice. And I hope any of the above are looking for these things and many more on a day to day basis.
So, when I visit a facility to do any kind of a Safety follow up or just an initial visit, I always like to include a walk-thru with the person responsible for Safety. Depending on the size of a location that could be a Director or VP of Safety or a young man or woman performing a task on the warehouse floor. The important thing is that whoever is responsible for driving that culture of safety is getting the word out and not only observing the rules but enforcing them and holding us as employees accountable!
One of the first things I look at is the building perimeter. I find that if the fence doesn’t have a bunch of papers, shrink wrap, wrappers and leaves, really any kind of debris laying up against it from the wind blowing everything around, it usually tells me that this facility takes sanitation seriously. A clean facility can be a safe facility. Another thing I look for is signage. Is it visible from the road? Are all the lights on it working, can it be noticed immediately? I’ve heard of so many fender benders happening out front of different facilities because at the last second a car or tractor trailer just saw the sign and had to make an immediate maneuver to avoid missing the turn in. Out in the truck yard I’m always going to look at those yellow or red bollard post too. Their great for keeping a truck or tractor from rolling up into our railings or knocking down our light poles but are they painted well? A bollard just looks so much more important or official if its bright and clean looking. I think well-kept bollards and brightly stripped parking lanes show pride. Employees and management that are proud of their building’s kind of project that culture of safety.
Heading inside the building I always ask about security. Are there separate employee entrances? Are there employee badges required? I always try and learn a little about those programs if there present. Most companies will have a written procedure they are. My next observation may be the pedestrian walkways. Again, I love seeing a bright stripped or outlined walkway, depending what that walkway is identifying. As a quick side note, did you know that OSHA helps us define the importance of walk ways and floor markings. I found a short article at https://www.graphicproducts.com/articles/osha-floor-marking/ , more of an advertisement actually, and no, WAOC is not affiliated with them or any other supplies vendors, I just pulled them up online, thought you may find it interesting. Anyway, they remind us that OSHA addresses floor marking specifically in its standard on materials handling and storage of 29CFR1910.176. You should check out the standard at OSHA.gov, it’ll give you recommended widths and suggestions for where we may need them. 29cfr1910.144 talks a little about establishing color coding for different things too. I found them both short and interesting reads. Anyway, walkways are so important. We may have over the road drivers unloading at our facility for the first time, not being aware of our traffic patterns or what warehouse equipment we’re using they will help safely direct them to where they need to go. Even us as employees need a safe path to the breakroom, water fountain and time clocks. Walkways will help us as equipment operators too, we know to always be on the lookout for people and to know our surroundings, but a clean, bright, and defined walkway sure can help too!
Next, and this is one I sometime stump an associate or young supervisor with. OK, if our facility incorporates an overhead sprinkler system or in rack system does everyone know where the main water shutoff valves or sectional valves are located? Think about it really quick. What if a forklift driver hits a sprinkler head in the rack, or we’re taking a pallet down from the top rack and drag it across a water line? Ever seen those lines start draining water, right onto our freight and into our warehouse. I can tell you it’s not a pretty site. And for every second it takes to turn off the water flow, gallons and gallons of water is running through those lines. If you’re a lift operator always know where those water lines are located. And if you’re a Supervisor, learn how to stop that water flow. I always made sure 3 or 4 of my team members knew how to find and shut off those valves.
The next thing I may ask to see are the fire evacuation routes or plans. Usually these will be posted somewhere that’s easily accessible and available for everyone to see. It’s not unheard of for an auditor to ask a random employee if he or she knows where they are or where do they go in the event of an evacuation. If you’re a supervisor make sure all your associates know where the rally point is and that you have a roster on you, with phone numbers, so you can let any first responders know that everyone’s out and clear. Of course, I want to see the eyewash stations and emergency showers, just to make sure there working properly, oh and fire extinguishers, are all your fire extinguishers properly placed thru-out the facility. Depending on what type of facility I’m in I may ask to see the flammable cabinets, its best to have certain shop items locked in a fireproof cabinet. I’ll usually check the first aid station, SDS books and ask if safety meetings are given on a schedule or at the daily start up meeting, things like that. While walking around visiting I’ll check to make sure everyone’s wearing their required PPE’s and safety equipment. And I always enjoy talking to their 29cfr1910.178 instructors, it’s always nice to talk a little safety shop talk. There are probably a hundred other things I notice while walking around but for me the most important thing is talking with and visiting with all the associates. They so rarely get to talk about all their knowledge and share it all with a stranger. Every walk is a positive thing, I honestly have never had a negative walk thru. Always share your culture of safety with anyone walking your building every chance you get!
As for training visits, you know, safety is so defined. Either the safety culture is there or your following all the regulations and have everything documented or not. If not, then you just have to get it documented and strengthen your facilities culture. Training on the other hand needs to be what works! Training is different for every position and really for every employee. We all learn a little differently. The word I always throw out to a new hire is Listen. Even if we’ve been doing something for 5 years, I assure you we’ll learn something from even a new hire if we’ll just listen. I see so many experienced warehousemen like order selectors, pallet runners and sanitation crews, everyone really, get to thinking they know everything there is to know about their jobs and just quit moving forward. I learn something new from everyone I talk too, at every facility I visit and every new hire I speak with. The important thing about a training program is that you have one! Just like a job description it needs to be printed, on paper, and be something someone can hold in their hands. If it’s not outlined and documented, we’re going to teach the job a little differently to each person. As trainers it’s our jobs to keep it interesting, explain everything well and make sure our employees understand what we’re asking them to do. Answer questions drag questions out of them if we have too. I do a lot of “Repeat that back to me now” kind of things. I’ve always found people learn better when they mix listening with talking. Do you always feel like you’ve given it your all when training an individual? You get frustrated occasionally right? Imagine how a new hire feels if they get frustrated. You’re going to show up to work tomorrow because you know it’ll get better. They may not. And then you’ll have to start the whole process over again. Which will lead you to more frustration I bet.
To summarize, welcome an auditor or anyone that wants to know more about your operations, I assure you there only there to help. In my case to meet you! And for training. Be accepting, listen and follow the directions given. Even if you’ve done something differently in the past, follow the directions your receiving now. You’re getting paid and I’m certain the program being taught has been thought thru and developed for specific goals in mind!
Speaking of goals, how’s yours coming along. I have one I’m having to hunker down on next week but over all I’m going to wrap up 2019 pretty much like I wanted too!
Until next week, let’s all go out on the floor and make a new friend, talk shop with them, share a safety thought. Listen & Communicate!