Plant Manager Walk – Forklift Safety

When I was a young engineer, I had no patience for safety – I was in a hurry to get stuff done. If you told me, “You have to learn about OSHA requirements or learn Klingon”, it would have been a tossup. I got over that. Eventually. I was stubborn. Forklift safety was the last thing on my mind.

Today, let’s look at forklifts and pallet jacks.

If you speak OSHA, that’s “Powered Industrial Trucks.” (If you speak Klingon, it would be closer to “tepqengwI’.”)

First the obvious points, for sit-down type forklifts:

• Are your folks wearing seatbelts? They should be.
• Are they setting the parking brake when the lift is parked?
• Look at the back of the fork truck? Is it all scratched up? Are there streaks of yellow paint from hitting bollards or safety rails? Streaks of paint that match other lifts?
• Are your folks operating them safely? Stopping or slowing down at intersections, using the horn, keeping their hands, feet, and head inside the lift? That foot or hand sticking out can be severely injured if the forklift passes to close to a box or steel column.
• Are the operators watching for, and yielding to pedestrians?

How about Order Pickers / cherry pickers. “Narrow aisle trucks.” Are your folks wearing required fall protection?

Less obvious points:

• Is there a daily inspection on your fork trucks? There should be.
• Are your lifts equipped with Fire Extinguishers? If so, these should be maintained and inspected along with your facility fire extinguishers.
• Are your folks trained and evaluated before left on their own to operate lifts? They need initial training and at least an evaluation every 3 years.
• Forklift capacity? There’s a name plate on each lift that shows how much weight it can safely lift. Are your lifts adequate for their daily purpose? Weight capacity and fork length. What about exceptional uses? Say, a truck shows up with a 5000# piece of equipment. Do your folks understand they can’t grab your 3000# capacity forklift to unload it?
• Are your lifts rated for the areas? If you have combustible dusts or flammable gases/vapors in your plant, are your lifts rated for that hazard?

Are you using propane lifts?

• Are you storing the cylinders safely?
• Do your folk use appropriate gloves, like Neoprene or rubber, for changing cylinders? Long sleeves, safety shoes, eye protection?
• Do they have a dolly handy for moving the empties and new cylinders?

Electric lifts?

• Are you storing the batteries somewhere safe?
• Do you have eyewash stations near there?
• Some type of lifting device to use when they’re changing batteries?

Forklifts are so common in manufacturing that we take them for granted. Stop and take a look at yours.