How to Reduce Instances of Human Error or Injury in the Warehouse

Human error in the warehouse can cause anything from merchandise and equipment damage to serious injury. It’s one of the main reasons many warehouses seek solutions to maintain safety and efficiency. While even seasoned warehouse workers can make the occasional mistake, many strategies exist to help you decrease the number of human errors in the warehouse. Learn about some of the common warehouse injuries and errors and how to address them in your facility.

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Types of Warehouse Incidents That Can Occur

According to the National Safety Council, the transportation and warehousing sector is responsible for the most preventable fatal accidents, second only to the construction sector. The industry saw 819 fatal accidents in 2017 and another 830 in 2018. Human error can also provoke nonfatal incidents that cause missed workdays or ruined goods. Here are some of the most common mistakes made in the warehouse:

1. Slips, Trips and Falls

Slips, trips and falls cause many general industry accidents. In 2018, 27% of nonfatal workplace accidents resulting in missed workdays were related to slips, trips and falls. They also account for nearly 700 workplace fatalities every year. Each of these hazards results from a loss of balance.

Slips happen with reduced friction between workers’ feet and the surface they’re walking on. The risk heightens when working on wet surfaces, spills or snow and ice. They’re more likely without the proper footwear, or when workers are in a hurry or not paying attention. Trips result from a worker’s foot hitting an object while in motion. The momentum throws the worker off balance. Like slips, trips are more likely when workers rush or aren’t aware of their surroundings.

Falls are perhaps the most deadly of the three, especially when they occur from a height rather than floor level.

2. Rack Collapses

Rack collapses are another life-threatening warehouse incident. A collapsing rack can cause workers to be struck by falling objects or pinned down beneath the heavy materials. While rack collapses can seem like an accident out of your control, the fact is most are preventable and related to human error.

First, rack collapses may happen if workers don’t build the rack to the manufacturer’s specifications. They can also occur if they’re holding more weight than they are graded to handle. It’s always a good idea to buy racks with more load capacity than you anticipate using. Improperly stowing materials is the primary cause of collapses, especially when it makes the stand top-heavy. Finally, forklift impacts can also cause a rack to collapse.

3. Muscle Strain, Sprains and Ergonomic Injuries

One of the most common ways to get injured in the warehouse is through straining or overexertion. Manual warehouse work is physically demanding, opening up the possibility for ergonomic injuries. While typically affecting the back, knees or feet, a musculoskeletal injury can impact almost any body part. They can sometimes require surgery, such as with carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis and tennis elbow. What’s more, sprains can put workers out of commission for long stretches, sometimes days, weeks or months.

Some of these ergonomic errors include overexertion, repetitive motion, bending or lifting from the wrong angle. Rushing through tasks, a lack of awareness about ergonomics, and improper use of protective gear can heighten the risk.

4. Forklift and Heavy Machinery Accidents

Forklifts and other heavy machinery are involved in many warehouse error incidences. They can crash into racks, palletized products, other forklifts or workers on foot. They can damage products and hurt employees. In 2017, 74 fatal and 9,050 nonfatal incidents involved forklifts.

The two factors most likely to create a forklift accident are excessive speed and driving with an elevated load. Other causes are related to imbalanced or overloaded machines. When workers drive recklessly or aren’t aware of forklift safety procedures, they’re more likely to crash, load their forklift improperly or lose control of the vehicle. Forklift drivers must keep to 5 miles per hour, lift to a maximum height of 4 inches and always wear their seatbelts.

5. Hazardous Material Incidents

Receiving, storing and shipping hazardous materials requires special training and certification because it is so dangerous. However, even with the best training and up-to-date certifications, accidental spills happen. Workers must recognize and understand how to appropriately respond to chemical spills and wear their personal protective equipment (PPE).

Most Common Ways These Injuries Occur

The first step to warehouse injury prevention is identifying the causes of error. Once you know why workers are making costly mistakes, you can address the root cause and prevent similar future errors. Some common causes of human error in the warehouse include:

1. Manual Material Handling

Manual material handling is one of the most common causes of warehouse injuries. It’s the reason behind 45% of workplace incidents causing three or more missed workdays in the warehouse and leaves much room for human error. When manual material handling requires repetitive motion or forceful exertion, it causes ergonomic injuries. When workers miscalculate how much they can lift or use incorrect posture, they also raise their chances for overexertion and musculoskeletal injuries.

Another human error involved in material handling is dropping objects. Boxes, pallets and loose products alike can injure feet or fingers when dropped. Dropping these items can also damage floors, equipment and merchandise. Manual handling increases the chances for improper stacking and storage, leaving open the possibility for rack or pallet collapses.

2. Worker Behavior

While some human errors result from honest mistakes, others involve negligence and complacency. Some workers may ignore safety procedures because they think the rules don’t apply to them or don’t understand their significance. They might also face a time crunch or a lack of labor power or equipment. Employees may find PPE uncomfortable or have workplace distractions fracturing their attention.Some noncompliant worker behavior results from attitude and personality. Some may want to look tough to their co-workers. Others face peer pressure from other noncompliant workers. Another cause of these types of worker behavior is complacency. For example, a worker might stack pallets too high to maximize space or save time. If it goes unchecked, the action becomes routine.

3. Increased Speed

Striking a balance between speed and accuracy in the warehouse is a constant struggle. As the warehouse industry faces tighter competition, more demanding deadlines and a reduced workforce, the pressure to work quickly is rising. It’s common to see speeding from forklift and heavy machinery operators. Speeding forklifts are more likely to crash, lose traction or tip over. Manual pickers and other workers might also feel pressure to rush from aisle to aisle, increasing their chances of slips, trips and falls.

4. Poor Choices

Warehouse workers need to have strong decision-making skills. When it comes to workplace safety, they may need to think on their feet to avoid injury in an unusual situation.

Poor choices may provoke many human errors. One worker might choose to remove their safety goggles to increase their visibility, thinking that they’re safer when putting themselves at risk. A forklift driver might not wear their seatbelt because they don’t feel unsafe driving 5 miles per hour. Workplace stressors and fatigue can cloud workers’ judgment, causing them to make the wrong call in the moment.

5. Lack of Training, Certification or Retraining

All warehouses have standard operating procedures to prevent accidents. They’re also subject to many safety standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). While these measures are excellent for avoiding workplace errors, they require workers to understand the rules. When workers don’t know or can’t remember what to do, they’re liable to make costly errors. Warehouses must engage their workforce in comprehensive training and maintain up-to-date employee certifications.

6. Environmental Factors

The warehouse environment can cause workers to make critical mistakes. Poor lighting can make it harder for forklift drivers to avoid impacts. A silver pallet rack with a similar color to the concrete floor will be harder to see than a brightly colored rack. The fumes produced by machinery and even stagnant air can make smart decision-making more challenging.Another factor is distractions. Noise, discomfort, fatigue, stress, workplace politics, socializing and overbearing managers can divide workers’ attention.

5 Ways to Reduce Instances of Human Error or Injury in the Warehouse

When you know the common warehouse injuries affecting your workplace and their causes, you can decide how to limit human error most effectively. You’ll find many strategies to improve workflows and reduce error rates alike. Here’s how to maintain a safe warehouse working environment:

1. Perform Root Cause Analysis After Incidents

Whether a human error causes a critical injury or a near miss, it’s crucial to investigate the incident. Beyond routine examination, root cause analysis uncovers the systemic or underlying causes. Identifying and eliminating these causes can prevent future injuries.Besides determining what happened, a root cause analysis asks why and how it happened. Why did the forklift have faulty breaks? Maybe it wasn’t properly tagged during a maintenance check. Why did water spill on the floor? Perhaps some pipes in the building are aging and in need of replacement. Why was the worker in a rush? The warehouse might be understaffed. Addressing these causes through new policies and procedures prevents incidents from recurring.

2. Train and Retrain Employees

Workplace training should always cover the OSHA requirements for onboarding, refresher courses and certifications. Your workplace may need to go beyond those minimum requirements, depending on your situation. If you find your workers are repeating the same types of errors or injuries, it’s a good idea to take a look at your training curriculum and find places to improve. Consider hands-on training to give workers a chance to practice what to do in an emergency or unfamiliar situation. This helps them make the right decisions when it counts.

3. Cultivate a Robust Safety Culture

Strong safety culture is one of the best ways to prevent errors and noncompliance. It encourages worker buy-in for safety policies and creates an attitude of collective responsibility. Safety culture starts with management commitment. Managers must treat safety as a priority and discourage cutting corners for the sake of efficiency. This dedication builds trust, which in turn helps employees put faith in the warehouse’s policies. There must be an open line for communication between workers and managers. It’s also crucial for workers to have involvement in setting safety policies, so they’ll understand and follow the rules.

4. Reduce Workplace Stressors and Fatigue

Stress and fatigue make it harder to think clearly and stay vigilant. Anything from a long shift to workplace conflict can increase instances of human error. It’s crucial to recognize the signs of stress and fatigue in the workplace and find ways to address it. Some things your warehouse can do to make the workplace less stressful include:

Hire more staff to accommodate an intense workload.
Upgrade the warehouse with new equipment before peak season.
Monitor employee workloads and talk to them about their stressors.
Schedule work hours to allow for plenty of breaks and a good night’s sleep.
Consider flexible scheduling to help employees strike an ideal work-life balance.
Increase comfort through lighting, temperature control and ergonomic equipment.
Educate workers on the signs of fatigue and how to address it.
Give employees clear priorities and organize workflows to avoid tight deadlines and operational bottlenecks.

5. Use Ergonomically Correct Material Handling Equipment

Since manual lifting, lowering, carrying, grasping, turning and other motions cause workplace accidents, ergonomic equipment offers a considerable improvement. These solutions can both reduce musculoskeletal injuries and reduce fatigue by making tasks less demanding. Equipment that lifts things hydraulically or mechanically, such as lift tables, reduces the burden on workers. Because the equipment takes less physical strength and exertion to operate, you may also find your warehouse gaining speed and reducing cycle times as a bonus.

Labor-Saving Equipment to Alleviate Human Error and Injury

One of the best safety tips for the warehouse is also an excellent warehouse efficiency tip. Switching to ergonomic equipment saves time, increases productivity and reduces ergonomic errors alike. It protects workers from injury and fatigue while allowing tasks completion with less labor power. Shaving down the time and number of workers needed to complete tasks can also alleviate workplace stress.

Here are some pieces of labor-saving equipment for your warehouse to limit worker injuries and error incidents:

1. Lift Tables

Lift tables eliminate repetitive bending and lifting motions by letting workers raise and lower objects to the desired height to maintain an ergonomically correct posture. Instead of lifting heavy boxes from ground level onto a conveyer, the lift table safely raises them to the conveyor’s height. Workers can then safely move the boxes without straining themselves. They can also provide an adjustable height work surface for many applications.

2. Work Positioners

Industrial work positioners feature a lifting fork that can raise and lower many objects. They give employees a workspace that’s adjusted to their height without the need for bending and straining. They help move items throughout a warehouse or onto a sales floor. With a load capacity between 2,200 pounds and 3,000 pounds, they’re excellent for many applications throughout the warehouse.

3. Furniture Movers

A set of furniture movers will grip large objects from both ends using a set of adjustable forks. A hydraulic pump lifts these objects off the ground, so workers can safely wheel them around the warehouse. At a load capacity of up to 10,000 pounds, furniture movers can move around industrial equipment, shipping containers, heavy packages and more. Workers never have to bend and lift the object themselves and can safely push the movers around while standing straight.

4. Drum Lifters

As material movers made especially for chemical warehousing, drum lifters and handling equipment reduce the burden of moving 55-gallon drums throughout the warehouse. They also provide a safe means for moving hazardous chemicals. If your warehouse stores and ships hazardous materials, drum lifters offer ergonomic support and critical safety measures to prevent toxic chemical spills.

5. Aerial Platforms

For warehouse tasks above floor level, forklift-mounted aerial work platforms allow workers to safely reach a higher height. Since they bring workers level with the areas they need to work at, they prevent ergonomic injury related to reaching or standing in awkward positions. Providing a stable above-ground workspace with railings also reduces the chances of a fall.

6. Pallet Truck Stops

If your warehouse uses pallet trucks, pallet truck stops and wedges are an excellent investment in preventing human error. They keep freight in place, so it doesn’t fall or become damaged. They also keep pallet trucks and pallet jacks in place to prevent them from rolling away, damaging merchandise and causing injury.

Why Choose Cherry’s Material Handling?

When you need equipment to improve warehouse productivity, reduce ergonomic strain and prevent other workplace accidents, trust Cherry’s Material Handling. We offer a range of helpful material handling equipment, and if you don’t see what you need for your application, we provide equipment customizations to help you reduce the common errors specific to your warehouse.

We also make equipment sourcing easy. Our e-commerce site offers simple navigation and easy-to-understand specifications, so you can find what you need without digging through a catalog or engaging in a complicated sales process. Our knowledgeable material handling specialists are on call to answer your questions at 877-350-2729. They can help you find the right tools and advise how to limit worker injuries with better safety equipment.

Reach out to us, or shop our collection of ergonomic material handling equipment and dependable warehouse solutions today.