Case Study | Warehouse Safety is No Accident
Confectionery manufacturer is not taking any risks with its workers lives Recognised as one of Australia’s best and safest places to work, a major confectionery manufacturer is vigilant about keeping its employees and visitors safe from workplace hazards.Increasing throughput from the factory, an expanding workforce and a growing fleet of forklifts travelling through the factory and the warehouse has meant maintaining its excellent record is a constant challenge. An indispensable piece of equipment for industrial facilities such as warehouses, manufacturing and logistics, forklifts are frequently linked with workplace injuries in these sectors. Typical activities such as reversing, manoeuvring, turning blind corners and negotiating bottlenecks mean forklifts present the greatest danger of serious injury to workers. PEOPLE VS FORKLIFTS – ADDRESSING THE ISSUE The most effective method of reducing accidents in factory and warehouse situations is to keep vehicles and people separate with clearly defined routes for each. WorkSafe Australia’s Workplace Traffic Management Guide offers a range of measures for managing identified risks. These include delineating areas using floor markings, traffic directions, signed walkways and guide rails which provide visual cues and warnings for workers. However, it is not possible to eliminate interactions between pedestrians and vehicles altogether. While signage and barriers are effective at keeping workers and forklifts within their designated traffic zones, intersections and crossings pose a high risk of a collision or accident. Using automated gate configurations to manage access in shared forklift/pedestrian zones provides an additional layer of protection. To cross a shared intersection a worker must activate a switch to close the boom gates and open the pedestrian swing gates before they can proceed across the walkway. After crossing safely, the worker activates another switch which automatically closes the swing gates and raises the boom poles to allow the forklifts access. Warehouse Safety Gates in Action
- Pedestrian swing gates normally remain closed and the boom gates open, allowing forklift traffic to move freely around the warehouse
- To cross pedestrians wave their hand across a touchless activation switch.
- The boom gates close preventing access by any vehicular traffic and the swing gates open to allow the pedestrians to proceed through the shared zone.
- Once the pedestrian has crossed they swipe the button on the other side.
- The swing gates close behind the pedestrian and the boom gates are automatically raised allowing access for the vehicular traffic again.
Whether it is a food manufacturing facility or a hospital – Rotech has been at the forefront of innovating new ways to create efficient access control solutions for virtually any situation. For more information about our products contact us (07) 3205 1123 or email us
