Is eCommerce putting warehouse workers at risk?
The ever-growing demand for speed and accuracy that is driven by e-commerce may be putting warehouse workers at greater risk than ever before. Bruce Stubbs, director, supply chain, Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions, explains how it is possible to protect, and enhance, the warehouse workers’ physical safety and mental wellbeing while maintaining high levels of productivity.
Being struck by a moving vehicle is the most common cause of death at work [1]. As eCommerce-driven warehouses become busier than ever, workers are at risk of being hit by vehicles such as forklifts if they do not adhere to walking in marked off pedestrian lanes and remain fully aware of their surroundings.
Hands-free technology such as voice recognition – as opposed to paper-based or screen display equipment – can help workers be more aware of their surroundings both when walking and while operating material handling equipment. Based on Honeywell’s experience with customers, voice recognition headsets help increase situation awareness. The technology is designed so that it automatically reduces sound to permitted levels, enabling workers to hear other noises in the environments such as forklifts.
It is also vital to ensure that forklift trucks are always driven by trained and competent employees, implementing an automated certification system. In order to operate a forklift, a worker has to swipe their ID card, which can be RFID or Quick Response-enabled, or even use their industrial mobile computers or voice-recognition systems to check whether they have received the right training and have permission to operate it. If they haven’t, the equipment automatically locks out.
It is also possible to use an industrial mobile computer to interrogate a forklift and perform a quick vehicle safety check to verify whether the vehicle has been serviced and all the essential components, including steering, brakes and horn, are functioning correctly.
Gaining the upper hand over handling risk
As the number of goods that workers need to pick and move increases by the day, so does the risk of suffering from work-related aches and pains. Indeed, lifting and handling are the second most common cause of workplace injuries in the UK [3]. Poor handling and lifting practices can, in the long run, also lead to serious conditions such as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) [4]. Whilst of course it is recommended to try and avoid the manual task in the first place, in today’s busy warehouse environments this is often not possible [5].
Once risks have been identified, the workers should always be provided with task-specific training in safe manual handling techniques and handling devices used. This should cater for different learning styles, paying special attention to younger generations. Young workers often make up a significant proportion of a typical warehouse workforce, particularly for temporary jobs such as seasonal picking operations [6].
Recent surveys show that millennials demand more and better training and consider this the most important workplace benefit to look for when seeking employment [7]. They also expect a range of digitally-based training formats and delivery methods.
The integration of voice recognition and live video recording technology offers workers on-demand training to complete their handling and lifting tasks safely and quickly every time. This type of training appeals to millennials who are likely to have grown up in the era of YouTube tutorial videos.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) can also be transformed in a smart device that gives millennial workers the same level of interactivity and ease-of-use as the technology they use at home. With the integration of miniaturised motion sensors and portable wireless transmitters, for example, PPE such as intelligent harnesses and smart footwear can connect to portable industrial grade devices and transmit valuable data to continuously monitor a worker’s posture and prevent MSDs proactively.
Catering for a diverse workforce
Not only is the warehousing workforce often young, it is also diverse and frequently multilingual. In the UK, nearly one quarter of warehouse workers are born outside of the country and 8 percent are recent migrants [8]. Language barriers can sometimes result in difficulties in fulfilling warehousing tasks and thus low productivity, which can in turn cause low morale, high levels of stress and a high employee turnover.
Traditionally, workers have had to rely on paperwork and labels to fulfil orders and paper-based information is typically only available in one language. Whilst the adoption of voice recognition devices may help, if these are monolingual, they can be just as challenging as paper as the experience of a large distribution centre in the Netherlands suggests [9].
By contrast, with a multi-lingual voice recognition system, workers can pick orders in their native language and perform their jobs to the best of their abilities. They can also be more focused on their tasks as they don’t need to interrupt their job to review information. As mentioned above, safety can also benefit from this technology as it improves situational awareness. Voice recognition headsets can also compliment face-to-face training, enabling workers to listen to instructions on demand in their native languages.
The experience of some distribution centres suggest that enabling workers to perform their tasks more effectively and efficiently combined with a safer environment can also have a positive impact on their morale. This is corroborated by several studies that show that investing in better occupational health and safety practices often has a positive impact on the workforce’s morale and wellbeing [10].
According to a recent survey by Honeywell and YouGov, nearly nine in 10 distribution centre operators across the United States, UK, France and Germany expect to adopt new mobile devices and voice-direction technology in the next five years [11]. This technology, combined with appropriate health and safety strategies, can play a key role in enhancing occupational safety and wellbeing in warehouses, offering a unique opportunity to make warehouses more engaging and stimulating environments than ever before.
References
- http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/pdf/fatalinjuries.pdf
- http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/hssh1617.pdf
- http://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/
- http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg412.pdf
- https://osha.europa.eu/en/themes/young-workers
- https://www.pwc.com/m1/en/services/consulting/documents/millennials-at-work.pdf
- http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-in-the-uk-labour-market-an-overview/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhBCIf_2H7A
- https://www.britsafe.org/media/1569/the-business-benefits-health-and-safety-literature-review.pdf; http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr692.pdf; https://osha.europa.eu/en/tools-and-publications/publications/factsheets/77
- https://www.honeywell.com/newsroom/pressreleases/2015/10/e-commerce-trends-driving-distribution-centers-need-for-new-mobile-technology-voice-applications-to-provide-accurate-on-time-delivery-honeywell-survey-reveals