Responsibility Meters, a Quick Review

Warehouse and Operations as a Career

So, during every PIT or powered industrial truck training class your instructor will mention, and I hope he or she will review, the Operators Manual with us. This week, I had an individual ask why this was important, he stated that nobody reads those manuals. I understand the statement. Did you know that when we purchase a new vehicle or car, we, as a new owner are supposed to read the owner’s manual? Ever seen how many warning stickers that are in the vehicle, come on, you’ve seen them. Maybe up on the passenger visor? I had one gentleman comment that all he looked at was how to work his new car radio! I’m always hearing how thick they are, or how long it would take to read through the entire thing. When you do open an operator manual, you’ll find that it pretty much covers the sessions covered during your PIT class. And a lot of times, when that book looks so big, is that it may be in two or three different languages, making them appear much thicker.

Just remember that it is your responsibility, as an operator, to know each type of equipment that you will be operating. And it’s your responsibility to know how to get to that operator’s manual. If your facility does not have them mounted on the equipment, ask your supervisor. He or she will be able to get one to you. Also, in todays world, with the help of Google, or any browser, and our smartphones, we have the manuals in our hands and can get questions answered immediately! Know your equipment and know how to find the operators manual. It is your responsibility!

Ok, what’s next, I made some notes for today. Oh shoot, I forgot to welcome you and thank you for visiting with us today. I’m Marty and you’ve honored us here at Warehouse and Operations as a Career and I appreciate your time! Ok, so what I wanted to share was that our reach lift over at the Distribution Training Center started dropping hydraulic oil on the floor Tuesday. It turns out that the oil filter had worked itself loose and was allowing oil to run out the overflow hose and down the lift and then to the floor. Not a lot mind you, but as we all know a little hydraulic oil is a mess! Our preventive maintenance service came by, checked it out and noticed that the oil filter was loose, and leaking oil! He felt like, possibly during the cold snap that froze Texas last week, that the O-Ring may have gotten cold and backed off a little.

I had mentioned to a co-worker earlier that I bet it was leaking from the filter or the oil reservoir. He asked why didn’t you just check it and tightened it. Maybe you could have saved a hundred dollars!

As we all learn during our PIT training, we are not allowed to turn a wrench on a piece of powered industrial equipment, and that is a good thing. Think about it, you wouldn’t want anyone except a licensed and certified mechanic working on your equipment. You want it to be correct. And it’s important to remember that if anyone does any type of mechanic work on our equipment and it is still in warranty or under a service contract, which almost all of your equipment will be, we could void that warranty or contract. And that could be a very expensive hit to our company.

So that’s why I did not check the filter and the reservoir myself!

Sticking to our PIT theme today. Last week I was told about an incident where an individual was on an electric rider jack and had hurt his heal. He required medical attention. But the Supervisor said he was doing everything right, or was correctly operating the piece of equipment. I had initially heard that he was in an aisle on an electric rider pallet jack, a platform rider, end control and he had a pallet stuck on the forks. It was said that he had crunched his heal between the platform and a warehouse post. Now, of course my first thought was that he had to be standing on the floor or maybe had his foot hanging off of or dangling from the jack. His supervisor was adamant that his associate had done nothing wrong!

Well, safety handled the report. I know an investigation was underway and pictures and statements had been gathered. I think everything was being put together as all accident investigations are developed!

Anyway, so this week I was doing another PIT observation and as the student was coming out of an aisle, setting up his turn I saw how his feet was positioned and his stance on the platform. The light bulb went off! I asked the student to freeze, and asked him not to move.

He had his left foot, the toe of his boot placed firmly up against the housing of the pallet jack. The heal of his boot was hanging off about an inch and a half from the end of the platform. Lining up with the warehouse post as he would have been coming out of the aisle. If he had been stopped, trying to come out of a pallet, he could have backed into the post with his heal. Our contention had been, if this scenario was what had happened was that when the heal had made contact with the post, it would have just scooted his foot or boot forward. I had just seen how it could have happened.

I don’t believe I have ever witnessed an operator jamming their toe area into the hood or cover of the jack. That could have explained how the accident happened. Well, I immediately called the facility manager and the safety dept to explain what I had just seen. It made sense to everyone and now I know of at least 4 instructors that have one additional thing we teach too!

Here’s another good one to talk about. Yesterday I heard about a Near Miss report that had been sent into the company’s safety department. This particular safety manager has been working with like 2 or 3 young supervisors on how to develop a strong safety culture. They all have great crewmembers, very experienced associates at their jobs. And as we all know sometimes along with all that experience comes bad habits! Anyway, so the near miss report stated that this individual was operating a stand up lift, up on the front dock area, and the associate, while bringing the equipment to a stop, stepped off the back of it and the machine rolled another foot or so.

Now this is a smaller warehouse, I think they have 4 unloaders there, including the supervisor. So, in the supervisor’s mind, he scolded the associate, pointed out how dangerous that is and that it went against every bit of training he had been receiving lately and that he did not want to see it ever happen again. Well, the safety manager explained it was not a near miss. There had actually been not just a procedure ignored but a rule, a law, broken. After speaking with the young supervisor, they came to the conclusion that the associate should receive a written coaching or warning for the act and a 1-day suspension without pay.

I’d like to chime in here. To a 4 man crew, when 1 is missing, that is 25% of your shift. I get it. No one wants to voluntarily give up 8-man hours. I can relate to the supervisors’ concerns. He has to get tomorrows trucks unloaded, that’s his responsibility.

This is where us as frontline management have to step up in our thinking. Yes, he is responsible for getting the doors closed. However, and more importantly, he is responsible for the safety of all his employees and with providing them with a safe work environment.

I feel that it is our responsibility to make sure that culture is instilled within our shifts. If it is, then we won’t have these types of negligent horseplay occur in our house so, well, we won’t have to suspend a great employee!

As an employee it is our responsibility to be professional at all times. And as a front-line manager is our responsibility to teach our associates how to be, and the importance of being, a professional. The best of the best!

Well, there’s a little about my last few days. Can you relate to any of that! Send me a couple of things that’s happened to you this week. Shoot me an email to [e-mail] , I’d love to hear from you. I’ll start a thread on the Warehouse Equipment Operators Community Face Book Group too, feel free to share there!

Until next week, and I do hope you’ll check back with us next week, lets all check our responsibility meters and stay safe at 100%.