The November 2015 SEMA Safety Conference was an event that had been highly anticipated by both the private and the public sectors. The day itself saw many talks from a range of people across the world of health and safety who helped to clarify what was happening in the present as well as give some insight into the future.
Who Was There and What Did They Say?
The event comprised of nine talks, and three of those were about racking. Specifically, racking inspections, racking protection, racking inspection training, cantilever racking, pallet racking, and the future of racking inspections were all subjects that were addressed on the day. Aside from racking, there was much else to talk about.
After some preliminary introductions from president Matt Grierson, Nina Day delivered the first talk of the conference and discussed ways to prevent supply chain accidents on the road. Following this, Craig O’Dea discussed how to best manage a modern warehouse and gave hints as to what technologies might be used in future warehouses. Rob Shaw then discussed slips, trips, and falls, detailing the difference between them.
Shaw, who literally wrote the book on slips, trips, and falls, criticised the “what can you do?” attitude of some businesses with regards to this issue. He argued that there was actually an awful lot that businesses can do to prevent these types of accidents.
Richard Heath spoke about the importance of recording accidents and near misses and how these reports are helping the health and safety industry towards its goal of a zero harm workplace. Stewart Howard added to this with his presentation on accident investigation. The final talk of the event was from Neil Sheehan, a nominee for Asda’s Act With Integrity Award. He spoke on behalf of Asda, and private business in general, as he outlined the responsibilities that retailers have with regards to “end user” warehouse safety.
The Importance of Racking Inspection Training and The Future of Pallet Racking Inspections
The second of the three talks on racking was from Steve Cowen of SEMA’s technical committee. In his talk, he championed the importance of SEMA approved racking inspectors (SARIs) and how they are there to spot the things that others may miss. Without racking inspection training, it is quite easy to miss rust on pallet racking if it’s been painted over.
Towards the end of his talk, he mentioned how SEMA are considering working with drones in order to perform racking inspections in the future. The benefits of using a drone are that SARIs can perform racking inspections in areas that they might otherwise consider too dangerous to approach. However, he conceded there are several legal and logistical hurdles to get over before this future dream of racking inspections becomes a reality.
Contact the SEMA approved racking inspectors who never miss a thing! Get in touch with Storage Equipment Experts Ltd for racking inspection training or for a racking inspection from a SEMA approved racking inspector.
