Industry group seminar focused on safety in the warehouse

According to recent figures, there are approximately 20,000 serious injuries and nearly 100 fatalities a year in industrial facilities. To put those numbers in context, just falls within facilities cost business more than $5 billion a year. “You’re talking about a lot of dollars and a lot of injuries to workers and visitors,” according to Dave Brentz, chairman of ProGMA, the industry association representing manufacturers of protective guarding and other safety-related products.

Brentz, who is a vice president with Industrial Netting, was a co-presenter with Eddie Murphy from SpaceGuard Products and Tad Draxler from Steel King Industries, at “Protect Your People and Your Wallet,” a presentation at Modex focused on safety and guarding solutions for industrial facilities.

During the seminar, the co-presenters used videos and photos to take attendees on a virtual tour of some of the most common warehouse hazards along with best practice solutions recommended by ProGMA—everything from guard rails to safety netting that prevents pallets and boxes from falling off of pallet racking.

Attendees were also provided with a cheat sheet managers can use to audit their facilities and suggestions to mitigate safety issues they may discover. “People talk about safety as the most important issue in their facility, but too often it only comes to the top of the list when there’s been an injury.” Brentz said. “We want to make sure that safety is number one, and that the performance of the solutions they put in place meet rigorous standards.”

Modex 2016 is scheduled to be held April 4-7, 2016 in Atlanta’s Georgia World Conference Center. The tradeshow will showcase the latest manufacturing, distribution and supply chain solutions in the material handling and logistics industry. Modern’s complete Modex coverage.