Failure to maintain warehouse equipment places workers and equipment at risk.
The maintenance of warehouse equipment can be a challenge, but it’s essential to keeping your workers safe and productive. If you’re wondering how to manage the process and achieve positive results, this post will help you understand the costs of not maintaining your equipment and why it’s such a critical issue.
Why is warehouse equipment maintenance important?
Maintaining warehouse equipment is important for a variety of reasons. First, it saves money in the long run by ensuring that your equipment runs efficiently and reduces the chance of breakdowns, which can lead to costly downtime. Second, it ensures worker safety by keeping machines functioning properly. Third, maintaining warehouse equipment is required by OSHA regulations that ensure compliance with workplace safety standards.
The costs of warehouse equipment repair
A failure to maintain equipment can lead to numerous types of hazards. These may include:
- Slips, trips, and falls
- Wooden pallets that are not stable or level cause them to tip over and create a tripping hazard when stacked on top of each other
- Equipment in disrepair or with missing parts creates pinch points for workers who have to interact with it on a daily basis. A good example is an electric lift truck that lacks a safety barrier between the operator’s seat and the equipment’s controls. This could result in someone becoming injured if they accidentally hit their head against this barrier while operating the lift truck.
Equipment maintenance and OSHA inspections
You may be familiar with OSHA’s recordkeeping requirement, which requires employers to keep certain records for at least five years. But did you know that OSHA also requires employers to maintain their equipment in a safe condition? If an inspector finds that equipment is not being maintained properly and poses a safety hazard to workers, the employer can be cited for failure to maintain equipment.
OSHA inspectors monitor whether employers are maintaining their equipment properly by conducting periodic inspections of all aspects of your workplace. They look at many things during these inspections, including:
- Are there any electrical hazards? (Employers must make sure all electrical systems are up-to-date and are inspected regularly.)
- How often has the company performed maintenance on its forklifts? Has it kept track of when those inspections were conducted or how often they took place?
- Is there adequate lighting throughout all areas where employees work? Do employees need protective eyewear if working near lasers or other potentially harmful tools/equipment (e.g., grinders)?
How to manage warehouse equipment maintenance
- Establish a maintenance schedule.
- Set up a maintenance checklist.
- Train employees to use equipment safely.
- Use maintenance management software (CMMS).
One of the most important things to do is educate workers on how to use the equipment correctly and safely, but it can also help you keep track of what’s been done in case something needs to be fixed or replaced down the line. It’s best practice to have all workers sign off on their training, so there’s documentation that they are fully aware of proper operating procedures and safety protocols—and if there’s ever an accident, such as someone getting injured because they didn’t know how this piece worked before using it for the first time, then having these records will go a long way toward proving negligence on behalf of your company in court if necessary!
https://www.statista.com/chart/25022/injury-rate-per-100-full-time-employees-warehouses/
Warehouse equipment maintenance is essential to a safe, efficient workplace.
Importance of maintenance to the company:
- * It reduces downtime, which decreases costs.
- * It ensures efficient and safe operations, which increases productivity.
Importance of maintenance to the workers:
- * Workers are less likely to be hurt or killed on the job if the equipment is well maintained.
- * Workers are more likely to receive fair compensation when they do get injured because their employers have taken steps toward preventing injuries by properly maintaining equipment in the first place.
Importance of maintenance to customers:
- Customers are more likely to continue using your services if they know that you care about their safety as much as your own employees’ safety and comfort (i.e., you maintain your warehouse equipment).
Maintaining your warehouse equipment for the long term is critical to worker safety and the productivity of your facility. It allows you to allocate resources to important areas at the right times, examine patterns of use across the lifespan of your equipment, and can ultimately save you money down the road.
Proteus MMX helps you achieve these goals so that you know your facilities will be secure, operational, and profitable well into the future.
