From sweltering summer temperatures and frigid winters to powerful storms, flooding, and even wildfires can pose dangerous threats to warehouses and their workers. Certain precautions, such as having an emergency action plan, can help keep employees safe during extreme weather conditions.
Factors like scaffolding, large, open indoor spaces, electrical equipment, heavy machinery, and proper protocols can become matters of life and death during severe weather.
Workplace Hazards During Extreme Weather Conditions
It’s tough to argue that weather conditions are getting more dangerous and extreme each year. Storms are stronger and last longer, temperatures are higher in the summer, and some events are becoming more unpredictable.
Extreme temperatures, high winds, and wet conditions can significantly threaten a warehouse or distribution center’s employees and overall productivity. For example, warehouse workers generally work in open spaces, at heights, and around moving machinery, exposing them to various safety hazards.
When you mix in unfavorable weather conditions, a warehouse can become extremely dangerous. Some of the most common risks associated with extreme weather conditions include heat exhaustion, hypothermia, floods, lightning strikes, electrocution, falling objects, and other injuries.
Promoting Warehouse Safety in Extreme Weather Conditions
An employer must identify all relevant workplace hazards that might materialize due to a weather-related event and implement the proper protections and protocols to keep employees safe. Employers can choose from various measures, such as hazard elimination, administrative controls, engineering controls, or personal protective equipment (PPE) to safeguard workers.
Another aspect of warehouse safety is proper preparedness. Specifically, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) requires that employers have a written emergency action plan that includes emergencies caused by extreme weather. Below are four ways warehouses can address safety issues related to specific extreme weather conditions.
1. Extreme Winter Weather
It is challenging to operate a large warehouse during extreme winter weather. After all, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year for most distribution centers. However, the potential for severe accidents is much higher when there are icy roads and cold conditions, requiring businesses to take precautions.
The grounds around a warehouse should be cleared of snow and ice. They should also be regularly salted to prevent slip and fall accidents. Because ice melts and creates slush and puddles, keep the inside clean to avoid slipping inside on hard concrete floors.
Employees should be encouraged to wear warm weather gear, slip-resistant footwear, and reflective clothing to be seen in reduced visibility conditions. Also, ensure that racking systems and products can withstand the cold so they don’t fail and create hazards for workers.
2. Sweltering Summer Heat
Trying to beat the heat in a warehouse can be challenging. With the sun heating the roof of the massive structure, the temperatures inside can rise quickly. Due to the cost of cooling a large, open space, many warehouses don’t have adequate air conditioning for unusually high temperatures.
Extreme heat can lead to loss of fluids, fatigue, and severe heat-related illnesses. Employers should have strict heat prevention measures to encourage hydration, increase breaks, reduce workload and pace, improve ventilation, and avoid working outside.
Employees must be educated about the dangers and signs of heat exhaustion and encouraged to report any issues to their superiors. Additionally, businesses can adopt technology that detects and alerts supervisors if an employee’s body temperature exceeds a certain threshold, such as personal monitoring devices or thermal imaging cameras.
3. Powerful Storms
Historically, powerful storms like hurricanes, tornados, and blizzards increase the chances of downed trees and power lines, flooding, and power outages, among other serious issues. If your warehouse is still operating when one of these storms comes through, you have a responsibility to protect the health and safety of employees.
An advanced warning system can give your business the information it needs to make informed operations and loss prevention decisions. Actively monitoring local weather data or installing weather sensors on your business can help keep you safe and informed on approaching danger.
You may wish to shut down before a significant storm arrives and avoid the potential for damaging machinery or placing workers in harm’s way.
4. Wildfires
Wildfires are common disasters that can spread quickly to populated areas. Workers are at risk if a warehouse is in the way of one of them. Advanced planning can protect the structure, inventory, and employees from the destructive impacts of wildfires.
Paying attention to the basics of fire safety should come first. This includes having well-marked exits and pathways throughout a warehouse so employees can escape when necessary. There should also be a robust fire suppression system on site.
Some warehouses are also implementing high-visibility railings and bollards, which are visible in low-light or smokey conditions. Every employee should also receive sufficient training on what to do in a fire-related emergency.
How Technology is Advancing Workplace Health and Safety
Having suitable systems in place to improve productivity and efficiency within a warehouse is essential. Many businesses in this industry must realize that these same systems can also improve workplace health and safety.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can help warehouses address supply chain challenges. They are also excellent tools to analyze extreme weather risks and help create emergency response plans for various scenarios.
Automation and robotics provide warehouses with the tools to fulfill orders more efficiently. These solutions also take some of the most demanding manual jobs away from human workers to reduce heat exhaustion or dehydration during extreme weather conditions.
The warehousing industry will always be one of the most hazardous places to work, but technology and proper planning play more significant roles in addressing these challenges. To fully capitalize on these capabilities, businesses must continue investing in technology solutions and ensure they are using them to their full potential to get the most benefit.
About the Author
A pioneer in the mobile-powered industrial carts industry, founder and CEO John O’Kelly began Newcastle Systems in 2005. John has since grown the company to 40 employees and was recognized as a 2022 Supply Chain Brain Top 100 Supply Chain Partner.
To meet growing demand, the company moved from Haverhill to a larger location in Amesbury, MA. The mobile carts are used in manufacturing, retail, and shipping and receiving applications by companies including Walmart, UPS, DHL, Wayfair, Tesla and Amazon. Newcastle Systems recently released an industry report, Bridging the Gap Between Humans and Automation.
Article and permission to publish here provided by John O’Kelly. Originally written for Supply Chain Game Changer and published on February 13, 2024.
Cover photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash.