Safety-first mindset at all levels
“As a logistics-driven company, this can be particularly challenging in our warehouses, where people are exposed to many different types of equipment, processes and products. We’ve introduced various tools to make their work safer, such as quick-release bolts and lifting magnets to minimise the physical strain, safety knives with extra protection against cutting injuries, and better demarcation of fire extinguishers,” states Aurélie.
“We also put a lot of effort into fostering a safety-first mindset and culture, including through ‘Safety Awareness’ weeks at all our warehouses, featuring training sessions on reanimation, pedestrian and forklift safety, and so on. This is in addition to other safety training, such as the training course we ran on the safe operation of pallet trucks at our warehouse in Poitiers, France, in 2023. We intend to extend this training programme throughout all countries in 2024,” she adds.
Incident reporting
But safety starts with all of us, she explains, which is why the topic also receives significant attention at management level. In that context, an Operations dashboard was set up in 2023 to measure and monitor the number of safety incidents, including near-misses. “To identify risks and make improvements in support of our goal of zero accidents, we introduced Key Performance Indicators for everyone in Operations,” continues Aurélie.
“Managers actively encourage employees to be alert to potentially dangerous situations and to report them during the daily team meeting. These can then be analysed and tackled as part of our continuous improvement toolbox. As part of our efforts to benchmark best practices, members of the Kramp International Health and Safety Community as well as Operations Directors from all countries share learnings, ideas and actions during weekly and monthly meetings,” she comments.
