Blog

Part One: Handling Silica Dust

These next two blog entries may, or may not, apply to the work your facility does – but it’s really important on several levels so it’s worth spending the time on.

Federal regulations about the handling of silica dust in the workplace are changing, and if you haven’t already, you’re going to need to adjust quickly.

Silica dust is produced when you crush, cut, grind, drill into, or blast concrete, dust, and rock. Its crystalline particles can get into a person’s lungs and cause serious, and sometimes fatal conditions.

Operating a Damaged Forklift

Even with daily inspections and regular maintenance, forklifts will experience occasional failures of varying severity. In the event of milder equipment trouble, the temptation may exist to keep the unit in service, to tempt fate in the name of efficiency or production.

We can’t emphasize the next four words enough:

Don’t ever do this.

Never, ever.

Ok, that was six words, but the point remains. Ignoring safety procedures is one thing- willfully engaging a damaged or compromised piece of heavy equipment is another.

Continuing Forklift Education

“The only thing that is constant is change.” – Heraclitus

Think about how much the industry has changed since you started. No matter when that was, there have been technological, procedural and safety improvements that you need to keep ahead of or else you are in danger of getting passed up by individuals who are more adaptable to change.

This is why keeping your training programs up to date is so important.

Safety training, of course, is the most important educational module to stay up to date with. The more forklifts change and new technologies are implemented, the more important safety procedures and new processes become. Preventing accidents, in addition to the obvious benefit, also saves money. It allows your facility to continue to operate without costly investigations and keeps your staff humming along at full capacity. Keeping your employees up to date on new procedures and training is a must.

Embrace the Variety of Forklifts

Forklifts are the workhorses of your facility, lifting and retrieving materials that are too large or heavy to manage manually or that need to be stored in an unusual location.

However, different lifts are built for different things, something you might not consider when building your forklift fleet. Let’s take a look at three reasons you might want to consider a little variety in your choice of forklifts.

OPTIONS: As much as we may try to stay ahead of potential malfunctions and maintenance issues, sometimes things happen and a lift needs to be taken out of service. Having a variety of forklifts in your fleet means that even though they may be designed for slightly different functions, they can be pressed into duty in a crisis.