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The loading dock is the heart of your warehouse.  A warehouse loading dock can be as busy as a beehive as it’s the hub of traffic with products going in and out. With loading and unloading of large trucks, forklift trucks running, and many other operations taking place, it can often be hazardous for people working there.

Make your dock a safer place to work.   KMH can visit your dock and go over all aspects of your operation to give you ideas for keeping everyone safe.  Injuries on loading docks account for 25 percent of all reported injuries within supply chain facilities, according to Material Handling and Logistics.

You can reduce injuries by making a few improvements to you work environment:

Keep the warehouse and dock organized. OSHA suggests that the aisle ways stay clear, clean, orderly and uncongested. Start by separating pedestrian and forklift traffic, which decreases the risk for accidents.

Install spotlights on forklifts so visibility is high to people on the floor.
Install loading dock safety nets to prevent people from falling off the dock.
Perform preventative maintenance on equipment, including forklifts and stretch wrappers.

Eliminate the bottlenecks. You’ve been caught in a bottleneck before. Bottlenecks occur when input comes in faster than the next step can create output. These situations cause unnecessary employee stress, wasted costs, delayed shipments, a less-than-quality product, revenue loss and customer unhappiness.

Use technology to make work easier:

New technology in and around the loading dock can make both your job and your employees’ jobs easier. Try out these ideas to improve efficiency. Upgrade or buy management software to improve loading dock visibility, coordinate live and staged trailers and manage turn times. For example, sensors on dock doors can notify you when a truck has pulled up to or left the dock.

Create work stations. Use mobile computer carts with a power pack to eliminate unnecessary foot traffic. Instead of walking back and forth to a computer or printer in another room for label printing, weighing, scanning, etc., collect the data in one place.

Here are few ideas to post on you dock area as a starter check list:

• Train all personnel at the loading dock about safety
• Powered doors at the loading dock should be periodically checked and maintained
• Mark overhead hazards, such as electric wires, doors and pipes, so that they can clearly be identified
• Inspect palletized materials regularly to weed out defective pallets
• Clean out the loading dock regularly to prevent a pile up of debris and dirt
• Ensure emergency exits are not blocked and doors are functioning properly
• Make sure roll up doors at the loading dock are properly maintained

Call today to schedule a dock safety check with KMH systems! 888-KMH-SYSTEMS