John Nolan
May 11, 2016
The warehousing and fulfillment business worldwide is flourishing like never before with the increase in e-commerce and internet purchasing. Companies like Amazon and Apple have perfected the fulfillment process on a huge scale given the size of their respective operations and the amount of products passing through their fulfillment businesses on a daily basis. But, whether large or small, the warehouse and fulfillment business has a special set of circumstances, and given the nature of the business, OH&S (operational health and safety) is of key importance to most companies within this sector. It therefore stands to reason that most companies will look to comply with the OHSAS 18001 standard when they seek to establish an OH&SMS (operational health and safety management system). Recently, I worked with a company in this sector that wanted to build OH&S into their culture as well as become certificated to OHSAS 18001, and in this case study we shall look at some of the special challenges faced and how we used elements of the standard itself to overcome them.
As stated above, establishing a new OH&SMS in a warehouse has special challenges, especially so when the company is new and the workforce all come together with different levels of knowledge, different ideas, and priorities. Therefore, as well as trying to establish a culture of OH&S, we have to assess how compliance, communication, delegation of tasks, identification of individual competencies for OHS&MS involvement, writing an OH&S policy, and all other relevant elements can be measured, actioned, and joined together into a working management system that can not only protect the workforce, but show the necessary continual improvement. So, how did this organization go about this task?
As with any management system implementation, the organization in question approached this in methodical steps:
The message in establishing effective OH&S in this warehouse environment was clear: use consistent and focused leadership, foster an environment of openness, and use your OH&SMS to ensure that everyone’s awareness, involvement, and knowledge are as good as they can be. In most organizations outside of manufacturing, the warehouse environment will provide more potential hazards than other areas of the business; it is vital that the leadership team in the organization both recognize this and lead by example with this fact in mind. Build a culture of involvement, ownership, and education. Help employees collectively build knowledge of hazard identification and assessing risk – after all, they will spend more time in the warehouse environment than the leaders or OH&S manager will, and use their input concisely and efficiently. Ensure that machinery is operated safely and maintained correctly. Ensure that legislative needs are met, and good practices are established. You only have one chance to establish a positive culture, and this organization managed to get it right the first time. Ensure you do the same with your organization.
Why not use our free Gap Analysis Tool to measure your system against the OHSAS 18001 standard?