Safety Meeting: Oh Nooooo, where the heck did that guy come from!?!?!?
As distribution centers and warehouses are increasingly tasked with cutting cost and reducing downtime safety is sometimes overlooked. Some middle managers allow shortcuts because they are under pressure to get the job done. If this attitude is allowed to continue, the associates begin to notice and start taking their own shortcuts. As managers it is our duty to reinforce to the entire team that shortcuts are detrimental to productivity and safety. I am going to briefly discuss a shortcut that sent a man to the hospital.
In the large multi-building facility that I once worked it became a habit for leads and supervisors to use Cushman style carts to go from building to building and around the campus. The facility was huge, with the main building almost 990,000 square feet. As the hourly employees got used to the supervisors and leads using the carts, they decided why “why should I walk all the way over there”. Since the carts were off limits to unauthorized associates, the floor personnel realized there was occasionally an extra forklift sitting around. It became very convenient for the floor personnel to “borrow” a lift to “run up front” or “run to the other building”. As this lax attitude developed, the managers failed to enforce the policy that stated only licensed drivers could use the forklifts.
One warm summer evening, an inventory control associate had to go to one of the smaller buildings on the campus to perform an audit. So instead of walking like the other auditors, he decided he would just grab a forklift and drive to the other building. When he arrived at the location he noticed a few of his buddies from the receiving crew. He decided to stop and chat for a moment. He pulled up beside one of the receiving crew members. When he did the receiving crew member started screaming. It turns out the unauthorized rookie driver had ran over the toes of the receiving crew member. The forklift caught the tip of the toes and SPLAT the tips burst open like zits. The receiving crew member was rushed to the hospital where he sat in the waiting room bleeding for five hours. It turns out that bleeding toes are not as “critical” as a guy having a heart attack. The receiving crew member was placed on light duty for several weeks. This caused the company to have a lot of paperwork, an OSHA recordable, and to fire the Auditor.
It may seem wrong to have fired the auditor, but a corporate safety investigation turned up the fact that he was an unauthorized operator. Even though the policy had not been enforced the site manager was made to enforce company policy. The auditor picked up his bad habit by watching others. The lax enforcement of safety policy once again caused injury and hardship to associates.
It is the responsibility of managers to create a sense of obligation to all team members to observe safety policies. Without enforcement the policies do not protect anyone. As the managers instill the safety messages into frontline supervisors, the supervisors will then carry this safety message to the floor personnel. Without compliance at all levels, the safety policies aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Your company MUST make safety a priority, not just to prevent OSHA recordables, not to save insurance premiums, but to have the best mindset that a team can have.
