warehouse safety tips

In this post, you will find practicable warehouse safety tips on how to stay safe and healthy while operating a warehouse during the Covid-19 outbreak.

This topic is very important because once one of the warehouse workers being infected by Covid-19, most of the warehouse activities will be disturbed.

Workers’ productivity will drop significantly. Maybe warehouse operation continuity becomes unclear.

In the worst case, it must be stopped for sometimes.

In fact, Covid-19 spreading in the warehouse has a high possibility to happen due to several reasons.

Covid-19 Cases in the Warehouse

Lets see what were happened in Amazon.

There are more than 400 Covid-19 cases at the Amazon warehouse in Ontario as published by NationalPost.com.

According to NYTimes.com, a warehouse in the foothills of the Poconos has had more known Covid-19 cases than any of Amazon’s others after missing early opportunities to protect workers.

These are only two cases that have been published to the public. Unfortunately, I have not got any case that occurs in the manufacturing industry.

Warehouse Safety Tips 2021

The following warehouse safety tips are focused on how to avoid Covid-19 spreading.

I am trying to make it practicable so that you can implement these safety tips after reading them.

Tips #1 Always wear appropriate Personal Protective Equipment

The must-use personal protective equipment during the pandemic are the following:

  • Masker
  • Face shield
  • Gloves

You shall add that list to the mandatory personal protective equipment that you have determined for each work area, including the warehouse.

Tips #2 Keep social distancing

Social distancing is one of the keys measures to stop Covid-19 infection among warehouse workers.

So, always remind your partners in doing this as you know that the warehouse has a high people traffic compared with other work areas in the manufacturing plant.

There are many ways to keep social distancing in the warehouse. You can check the strategies here.

Alternatively, you can also create social distancing buffers for the workstations.

Besides that, changing the warehouse layout is another possible option you can think of.

Tips #3 Provide hand sanitizer for every worker

Workers will easily forget to wash their hand if you only provide hand sanitizer at certain locations in the warehouse.

In order to avoid this problem, it is advisable to provide also hand sanitizer for each warehouse works.

It has to be easy to bring like this one:

Tips #4 Provide additional food supplement for the workers

In fact, better food quality will boost the immune level of the body. So, it is worthwhile to provide additional food supplement for the workers to help them maintaining their health condition.

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Of course it will require extra cost. But, the company will get the return more than that value.

Tips #5 Measure the workers’ body temperature everyday

This is the next important warehouse safety tips during this pandemic. Always measure the workers’ body while they enter the work area.

The same treatment should be applied to all persons and guests who come to the warehouse.

This is very effective as the first screening for identifying an infected person by Covid-19.

Tips #6 Never allow sick workers to work

State clearly and educate all the warehouse workers that the company does not allow sick worker to work until they recover completely.

Why? It is because we are not sure about the Covid-19 symptoms one by one. So, it had better for the company to prevent it for spreading.

Tips #7 Increase the inventory level

By increasing the inventory level, you automatically decrease the activities of ordering, inspecting, receiving, and storing the goods.

Contact among workers, suppliers and drivers will be less and less.

Tips #8 Warehouse automation

If you have not used warehouse automation, this era is the time to start using it.

Implementing warehouse automation will greatly decrease contact among workers as well as improve productivity.

Increasing the automation is required if you have been doing it for long time.

Tips #9 Use special software for tracing

It is not easy to keep social distancing manually. You can use special software used for contact tracing.

By using special software you will be alerted when you are too close to your partner.

The employer can also use this software to monitor the overall workers position in the warehouse all over the day.

Tips #10 Virtual meeting only

If possible, do not carry out face to face meeting. Instead, you can choose virtual meetings as the safest way to communicate.

Tips #11 Keep good workplace conditions

Good ventilation will keep circulated air inside the warehouse clean and healthy.

Maintain all required equipment for this purpose regularly. If necessary, install an air humidifier to clean the air from air contaminants.

Conclusion

Covid-19 infection can be prevented. But, this requires a strong discipline to implement the standard health protocols as well as warehouse good practices.

Which warehouse safety tips above do you think that you have not done yet? And which is the most effective way to prevent Covid-19 infection?

Please share your thought by commenting below.