
Overseeing a successful industrial workplace requires an immense amount of care and consideration. Collisions, slips, and falls are just a few of the many common accidents that lead to injury or death in industrial facilities. This guide on how to prevent common industrial accidents will help you maintain the right amount of professionalism, safety, and success in your workplace.
Prioritize Clear, Concise Signage
There is a bevy of areas in the industrial work environments that require clear, readable signage. Ultimately, the signage you require depends on the specific purpose of your facility. For instance, areas in which forklifts operate should be clearly marked with signs so that if an employee wanders over there for any reason, they know to remain alert and aware of their surroundings.
Toxic or otherwise dangerous materials should also have clear signage on them to ensure anyone near them or directly handling them know to be careful. Even areas in which spills or other accidents have occurred require signage so that unsuspecting passersby don’t hurt themselves until you or an employee fixes or cleans the issue.
Keep the Workplace Clean
When it comes to figuring out how to prevent common industrial accidents, think about the cleanliness of your facility. Slipping and tripping are common workplace hazards that can have dire consequences. This is why business owners must prioritize and enforce a clean workplace by assigning the duty to specific employees who, in turn, carry out those duties on a regular basis.
Hazards like clutter on the floor, spills that go unnoticed, or cables strewn all over the ground can make the workplace a dangerous place. Not only should you enforce proper cleaning protocols, but you should also encourage employees to speak out if they witness any unsafe conditions, including but not limited to the aforementioned hazards.
Think About Ergonomics
The concept behind ergonomics is monitoring and optimizing the work environment in an effort to make it more efficient. More specifically, ergonomics meshes employee efficiency, comfort, and safety. Poor ergonomic practices such as not giving employees enough break time, not giving them a comfortable area to take a break, or forcing employees to carry out certain repetitive actions such as twisting or lifting can lead to employee injuries. These injuries will develop over time in areas like the neck, back, and wrists.
As a result, these circumstances can cause accidents if the employee sustains an injury during a task. Even something as simple as supplying employees with the right material handling equipment plays a key role in cutting down on those repetitive motions and improving ergonomics in your facility.
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