D espite managers’ best intentions, a warehouse can be a perilous place. Roughly 95,000 employees are injured each year while operating forklifts, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Workers also have dangerous encounters with other material handling equipment, while manual processes—lifting, bending, and repetitive motions—can take a toll as well.
technology to avert problems in real time and enhance safety over the longer term. Several of those newer solutions focus on collision avoidance. SynTech’s No-Hit Proximity Alert System, for example, places a magnetic eld generator on a forklift—or any other mobile machine— to create an invisible bubble around the vehicle. That eld contains two sections, a warning zone and a danger zone. Each pedestrian on the warehouse oor wears a personal alarm device. If a pedestrian steps too close to the forklift, both driver and walker receive audible and visible alerts. “The two zones have different alerts,” Helms explains. “The warning zone is three beeps with a ashing LED light. If workers continue into the danger zone, then the LED light and sounder become continuous.” Users can also get alerts to warn of imminent collisions between two forklifts, or between a forklift and a xed structure. “Many companies say, ‘We have this one column that everyone hits.’ We can put a device there that will provide an alert for that column as well,” Helms says. Pittsburgh-based ARIN Technologies also offers a collision avoidance system for forklifts, but instead of a magnetic eld it uses ultra-wideband (UWB) technology to establish communications between onboard and wearable units. It also puts its own spin on danger alerts.
These days, heavy turnover in the workforce increases the chance of warehouse injuries. “New workers are just not familiar with the facility,” says Jimmy Helms, sales and marketing director at SynTech, producer of the Hit-Not forklift safety system in Huntsville, Alabama. High turnover can also make safety training less ef cient. Consider what happens when an employee who has just nished a training program quits, and the person who takes over that job now needs the same education, says Sean Petterson, founder and CEO of Brooklyn-based StrongArm Technology, which develops systems to reduce workplace strains and sprains. Besides training associates to do their work safely, warehouse operators might encourage physical warm-ups such as stretching at the start of a shift. “But stretching is usually voluntary,” says Heather Chapman, U.S. account manager at Soter Analytics, a London- based rm that focuses on ergonomic safety. “You might see only 10% of the workforce stretching.” SAFETY STRATEGIES Warehouse operators deploy many other safety strategies—for instance, segregating vehicular and foot traf c, providing high-visibility clothing, or posting reminders about safety rules. Newer solutions use advanced
Soter Analytics oers small and lightweight wearable solutions that monitor and understand an individual's risk of injury. The devices can be worn on the back, shoulder, and/or helmet and headset to help prevent musculoskeletal disorders in the warehouse.
January 2023 • Inbound Logistics 137
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