During National Safety Month, we have a unique opportunity to focus on the importance of safety practices. It’s a time to raise awareness, update training, and celebrate our collective efforts toward making workplaces safer. While there are many aspects to consider in a company’s safety system, don’t forget to celebrate whitewood pallets’ role in maintaining and enhancing supply chain safety.
In many ways, whitewood pallets are the unseen red blood cells of the supply chain. Just as red blood cells transport vital oxygen to nourish the human body, pallets are essential for delivering the goods that sustain society.
While those blood cells operate invisibly within our bodies, our whitewood pallets often likewise go unnoticed, hiding in plain sight and blending into the background of operations. Given the numerous risks in supply chain management, it’s easy to overlook their importance until a negative event, such as a workplace accident or product damage, brings them to our attention.
Eliminating the Heavy Lifting and Repeated Handling
Imagine what your operation would be like today if there were no pallets. The invention of the double-faced pallet in 1937 dramatically reduced the physical labor required to stack and unstack materials and, of course, the risk of repetitive stress and strain injuries associated with manually handling materials.
Before adopting palletized handling, goods had to be repeatedly stacked and unstacked on their journey to the final customer. Think of goods being handled at the production plant, then into and out of storage, onto and off the delivery vehicle, etc. Now, products palletized at the point of production can be efficiently sent along the supply chain without needing further touch labor and while avoiding countless injuries.
Beyond that, high-quality whitewood pallets can help ensure that warehouse automation functions as anticipated, thereby contributing to further reducing or eliminating touch labor in the order-picking process.
Taking Steps to Ensure Pallet Quality
While whitewood pallets have been a fantastic workplace safety success story, they should never be taken for granted. Damaged or poor-quality pallets, as well as unsafe handling practices, can needlessly increase risk. That’s where National Safety Month, established by the National Safety Council (NSC) in 1996, comes into the picture. Each June, the NSC provides resources and promotes awareness of critical safety issues to prevent injuries and save lives. For 2024, the weekly themes include Safety Engagement, Roadway Safety, Risk Reduction, and Slips, Trips, and Falls.
In a previous blog, we discussed ways companies can work more safely with pallets by enacting a proactive quality control program and enforcing safe handling practices. In another installment, we explored how “top-of-mind” handling practices can reduce pallet damage that can degrade pallet quality. Information from these articles might be helpful to incorporate into your National Safety Month activities.
Additionally, here are some ways to celebrate pallets and proper pallet usage as part of National Safety Month:
Incorporate into the Slips, Trips, and Falls theme. Pallets should be included if you are creating material to support this year’s focus on slips, trips, and falls. Pallets are a hazard when left in locations such as designated pedestrian walkways. Aside from keeping walkways clear, pallet debris should be regularly removed from the warehouse floor to prevent loss of footing. OSHA 1926.250(c) Housekeeping states that storage “areas shall be kept free from accumulation of materials that constitute hazards from tripping, fire, explosion, or pest harborage.”
Incorporate safe pallet handling and quality assurance into training and training reviews or refreshers. Many companies use June as a milestone for required job retraining. Whether the refresher training is for forklift operators, material handlers, receiving personnel, or others, don’t forget to integrate safe pallet handling and quality assurance into those sessions.
Have the plant safety committee review the OSHA Form 300 Log regarding pallet-related events. OSHA requires that the OSHA Form 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, which summarizes the previous year’s records, be completed and posted in a visible location at the workplace from February 1 to April 30. Beyond that, June is an opportune time for the plant safety committee to review the records to identify injuries resulting from pallet handling or quality issues and to make recommendations to avoid recurrence. If you have been tracking injuries related to pallets in the past and taken corrective action, how is this category trending? Have pallet-related incidents decreased?
Plant celebrations. Everyone enjoys a free lunch. Suppose you are hosting a lunch to celebrate safety. Why not take a second to celebrate the pallet’s historic role in making everyone’s lives better and our collective responsibility to handle them responsibly?
The bottom line is that recognizing and celebrating the critical role of whitewood pallets during National Safety Month underscores their significance in maintaining an efficient and safe supply chain. By integrating pallet safety into broader safety initiatives, companies can highlight best practices for handling and inspecting pallets, benefiting employees and the overall business.
