“I didn’t really see it”, or “it was impossible for me to guess it was there”, are some of the excuses we tend to hear after an accident has occurred. Sadly, in most cases these are pointless, especially if an operator has been injured in the collision. Unfortunately, we hear these statements far too often and this means we still have a lot of work to do.

That’s precisely why in this post, we’d like to talk about some of the simple strategies you can apply to improve operator visibility. We will also touch on some very useful tools to help avoid forklift accidents or collisions caused by workers’ low or no visibility either whether visiting the premises or while at their jobs.

The safety tools we want to highlight include the humble reflective vest as well as reflective signs on helmets and industrial footwear. This is a simple and very economic measure to implement, but extremely effective at preventing risks. All this type of signs worn by operators will make them “more visible” in the eyes of the drivers and will help prevent accidents.

Likewise, it’s important to bear in mind that the use of reflective vests requires a serious awareness from the workers, who must understand how important it is for them to keep the vest on at all times while at work, even though it might be uncomfortable to perform some tasks, or it might feel too hot in certain other occasions.

In that sense, in many industries it’s possible to minimise these problems by incorporating the reflective strips as part of the operators’ uniforms. This will not only help avoid the extra cost of the vests but will also ensure that everyone will wear the reflective elements without having to be constantly reminded about wearing their vests.

We must also keep in mind the different developments that can make forklift drivers and operators near the manoeuvring area more visible, thus reducing the risks of accidents.

Developments such as the Pedestrian Alert System (PAS Solution) which, minimises the risks of accident between forklifts and pedestrians in common work areas. This tool warns forklift drivers as soon as it detects pedestrians at adjustable distances of 1 to 6.5 meters.

Another option: The Pedestrian Crossing Safety Solution (PCS Solution), a very useful and easy to deploy tool designed to ensure the physical integrity of pedestrians in crossing spaces. It’s applicable anywhere in any type of industrial facility.

It consists of a system that warns forklifts – by means of previously installed traffic lights – about the presence and eventual crossing of pedestrians in their area of influence.

Would you like to find out more information about any of these solutions?

Are you keen to learn more about our products?

Don’t hesitate to contact us.

A company that aims to provide quality services according to market demands and needs should know their customers and do their utmost to put themselves in their place. It is a company´s duty to listen to their audience, find out what their difficulties are and work towards providing effective and safe answers. This is definetely our goal at Claitec.

That´s why today we´d like to share three solutions we´ve created after analysing the needs brought forward to us by our customers.

1) Case Study 1 – The LSA Solution:

The LSA (Low Speed ​​Area) solution allows us to limit the speed at which forklifts circulate in different areas of our warehouses.

This tool is specially designed to reduce forklift speed in areas with pedestrian and/or worker activity.This tool was conceived after noticing – in conjunction with our customers – the high rate of accidents and collisions caused by heavy vehicles that did not see or stop in time before pedestrians. The LSA Solution is a key ally in spaces with high intensity forklift movement and with a significant presence of personnel.

2) Case Study 2 – The TCS Solution:

GSK approached us to share some concerns regarding safety at its plant. Problems such as the segregation of pedestrians and forklifts, the scarce distance existing to manoeuvre, and the possible negligences that could occur in an intersection. They also mentioned they had analysed other options, but that nothing appeared to be an appropriate solution.

In this framework our team at Claitec started working in conjunction with the GSK professionals and managed to solve their challenges. According to the representatives of the firm, “we set up a customised system that solved all their deficiencies”. That result was the Traffic Control System (TCS).

This tool configures an integral traffic control system without having to depend on batteries or mobile devices, and works passively – that is, it does not require human attention. The system provided solutions to the concerns of the firm, managing to segregate pedestrians and forklifts, blocking the movement of gates that hinders the passage areas, and alerting drivers to avoid blind spots.

3) Case Study 3 – Detection of doors:

This is a product developed after listening to several customers who recorded accidents by operators who failed to notice several doors ajar or closed. Very often, workers assume that traffic is to be clear and focus on the load they are transporting or on the dynamics of the environment. This causes them to end up colliding with industrial doors or gates.

For this reason, we develop a system that activates itself when a truck approaches a door, and tells the driver if it´s closed or not open at all, in case he or she did not notice it yet. When the truck approaches a door, whether it is completely closed or not properly closed, a light and / or acoustic warning is sent to the driver, thereby consolidating a tool that has already greatly reduced this type of accidents.

If you are also facing any kind of safety challenge in your company or industry, if there are any concerns that you cannot solve and are constantly generating headaches for you, don´t hesitate to contact us. We can work to provide a solution tailored to your needs.

April 28 marks the World Day for Safety and Health at Work – a topic that concerns the team at Claitec every single day. Safety at work is a real challenge and one which we are constantly trying to overcome by seeking ways to improve and progress. World Day for Safety and Health at Work is always an excellent excuse to force us to stop and analyse the environment where we work and the new challenges that we face.

In addition, this year a joint campaign is carried out worldwide, combining the objectives of each April 28, with those of the World Day against Child Labour. Specifically, this year there are calls for improving the safety and health of younger workers, hoping to end the massive problem that is child labor. It We can´t forget that there are still 168 million children who are victims of child labour today. This joint date give us the opportunity to accelerate all actions aimed at combating this dreadful problem.

The international organisations involved in this cause have called for joint efforts among all institutions that deal with these issues, to create the type of work evironment that our future working generations deserve. Their goal is to adopt “a concerted and integrated approach for the elimination of child labour and the promotion of a culture of prevention in matters of safety and health at work “.

According to data released by these organisations, there are currently 541 million young workers in the world with those aged 15 and 24 years old representing more than 15% of the global labour force. These young people suffer from up to 40% more non-fatal occupational injuries than workers over 25 years of age.

At Claitec, we adhere to the World Day for Safety and Health at Work campaign and share the view that it is vitally important to address these challenges urgently, and improve the health and safety of young workers. We are convinced it´s imperative to end child labour now.

Our team is committed to developing different tools that address the problem of work accidents and help minimise their frequency and consequences. Among some of these tools we´d like to highlight:

• The Pedestrian Alert System (PAS), which alerts the forlift driver when there is an operator near his or her work area, avoiding the risk of hitting the vehicle or the possibility of being run over.
• The Low Speed Area(LSA), which allows to maintain the speed of the trucks when they are located within a specific space or area. This system is designed especially for spaces with a lot of vehicular or pedestrian traffic, or for spaces with little room for maneouver.
• The Collision Avoidance System (CAS), which warns drivers when it detects other forklifts in a 25-meter radius. It doesn´t matter if the other forklift is located in a “blind spot” in a curve or if it is on the other side of an automatic door, the system will alert the driver and allow him to act with caution in that situation.

These are just some of the options we offer at Claitec. If you´d like to have more information about our products and solutions and their application to your case, don´t hesitate to contact us. We´ll make sure we find a tool that is tailored to your needs.

There’s no debating that reaching our goals without any effort it’s rarely possible. We know only too well the kind of fatigue the weight of our work responsibilities and routines generate on us. We are constantly overcoming a sea of difficulties to better ourselves in the tasks we do. However, while striving to become the best we can be, we should never neglect our health or that of our co-workers’. That’s why today, we’d like to share some tips to help you make your workplace a much healthier and enjoyable space for everyone.

Firstly, it’s essential to encourage healthy eating in our teams. Including fruits and vegetables in the diet is a key component of a better quality of life. Drinking water, avoiding soft drinks or cola drinks, avoiding snacks and foods high in fat or sugar are also key measures to promote.

In second place, fighting smoking – another key strategy given the proven damage that addiction causes on health. We recommend developing internal educational campaigns on the subject, while implementing smoke-free areas and setting up limited spaces for smokers.

Meanwhile, it is also recommended to generate policies that invite staff to participate in sports and other physical and aerobic activities. For example, some firms sign agreements with gyms in their vicinities to offer discounted membership for their employees. Others generate internal sporting competitions among peers to encourage exercise and build stronger bonds amongst their employees.

These sort of activities not only help release stress but also encourage better brain function. Similarly, experts advise, among other things, creating corporate preventive programs in the field of Occupational Health to help combat work stress, depression and poor relationships.

Meanwhile, on a day-to-day basis it is important to attend to the tasks that are given to the operators: we must avoid giving a workload that puts the person in a space of responsibilities that is too monotonous and limited, preventing him or her from having social contact or relationship with their peers and limiting the development and application of his or her creative abilities.

In the same sense, it’s important for task assignments not to generate role conflicts which could cause employees to have far too many responsibilities not related to their specialty on their shoulders, only to become a burden. Having clearly determined hierarchical structures will also help create a more harmonious and orderly operation.

Always committed to a continued global strategic development, at Claitec we have expanded our capacity to provide comprehensive safety solutions worldwide and today we are proud to share the news that we have landed in the exciting Chinese market!

Claitec’s presence in China will be managed by our distributor: Greenpack (http://www.dehao.com/), who has already created a specific webpage (http://www.gosafety-china.com/pas/) to inform the industrial community in the Asian giant about our products and services and to help them discover the different functionalities and solutions that our tools and developments offer for their industries in their search for improved safety at work.

Today, no one can ignore the importance of the Asian market on the global map, let alone the strength of the Chinese industry. China is a world leader in gross industrial production value. In addition, China has an economy that has registered a constant GDP per capita growth in the last decade, among many other strengths. All this propels us to take this step forward, convinced that we have a lot to contribute in such a thriving and important economy for the global industry.

We know that -in line with what happens in other parts of the globe- in China there is a great concern and a growing interest in improving all areas of industrial safety. It is in this context that we have begun our work and the first signs show a very good acceptance of the solutions we offer.

If you’d like to find out further details about our company and about the products and solutions we provide, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: https://claitec.com/en/contact/

Logistic Summit & Expo 2018, the Latin America’s main trade fair in Intralogistics and Supply Chain, was held a few days ago in Mexico.

The Claitec team, together with Drill Company, Claitec’s importer in Mexico, exhibited its PAS (Pedestrian Alert System) product ranges and latest developments.

Drill Company’s presence at the fair represented an excellent opportunity to promote the CLAITEC brand and products on the Latin American market.

Claitec is delighted with the reception our stand had amongst visitors.

We have addressed the need to be vigilant about pedestrians within our industrial spaces more than once. We have also spoken about some of the precautions forklifts must take in order to avoid accidents and minimise any potential risks. In this post we’d like to introduce you to an innovative system that not only manages traffic in work spaces, but it does so autonomously.

Enter the Traffic Control System (TCS), which is used to separate pedestrians from forklifts in a joint work space. The TCS is a comprehensive traffic control system, which does not depend on batteries or mobile devices. It works totally passively which means that it does not require human attention, constant maintenance or monitoring.

An AC-50 activator, a TZ2-Tag, a control box, a beacon, a traffic light and gate are required to operate the TCS Solution. These are all durable components capable of resisting the harsh industrial routine. The devices that are installed in the warehouse allow the detection of the forklifts already equipped with the activator. If necessary, the information is then sent to the traffic lights, the signalling beacons, the safety gates and railings, in order to segregate pedestrians.

To give you an idea of the TCS’s function – when a truck enters the safety zone delimited by the TZ2-Tag, the vehicle’s and warehouse lighting’s warnings are activated to alert them of their presence. At the same time, the pedestrian traffic light turns red and the safety gate is blocked preventing workers in that work space to continue walking. When the truck leaves the safety space, the traffic light automatically turns green and the previously activated mechanisms are unlocked.

This innovative system can be perfectly applied in areas with low visibility, in spaces where there is a risk of blind spots, at pedestrian and forklift crossings, in spaces with a high forklift traffic, loading and unloading areas, in warehouses, production lines and many other options that you will surely find when installing it in your facilities.

If you want to know more about this innovative product you can see an illustrative video here. If you want more information about this system or any of the other products we offer, do not hesitate to contact us.

In previous posts we talked about forklift safety and the best possible ways to add prevention elements to these key tools in our industries. Today, we’d like to share some of the control systems and forklift fleet management methods used by the leading brands in our industry to help us understand some of their key safety functions that could allow us to reduce workplace accidents.

First, it’s important to understand that the professional monitoring of the use of forklifts and the constant and strategic monitoring of their journey will not only provide greater safety for all our team members but it will allow us to operate in a much more efficient and holistic way.

One of the methods used involves RFID readers and/or codes – a configuration is established that allows the trucks to be used only by authorised and specially trained personnel. This way managers know at all times who is driving each of these heavy vehicles.

At the same time, documenting impacts is a very useful process that helps us analyse the operation and circulation of forklifts and to identify the main areas and causes of accidents. With that goal in mind, impact sensors are being incorporated to loading vehicles in such a way that, in case of collision, this is registered in a database that includes the name of the person driving at the moment of the impact.

In addition, this type of measures will lead to the operators being more careful when practicing certain types of manoeuvres. These systems will provide useful information on the operating patterns of the forklift and will help track and plan its maintenance stages.

We should also point out that Claitec’s PAS Solution can also bring great value to this type of fleet control development. One of the most interesting advantages of this product is its ability to record when and which trucks detected a pedestrian. This way, we can locate the critical points of circulation in our industry and the areas of greatest risk to pedestrians, in order to take measures and avoid accidents in the future.

These are some of the impact control and fleet management systems implemented by the biggest brands in the world:

• Toyota i-site: a fleet management and registration system that allows the company to monitor the use of the forklift and the operator’s performance in real time. It provides a continuous analysis and advice to clients.
• The Linde Fleet Management  system for the control of forklift fleets, developed by Linde Material Handling Ibérica, and focused towards offering customers the possibility to have key data on their fleet in real time.
• The ISM Online system from Jungheinrich, responsible for forklift management information and which corresponds to a comprehensive fleet management with which an entire fleet of trucks can be managed, regardless of size and complexity.
• And Still’s Fleet Manager which generates a complete plan of the management and monitoring of the industrial fleet, considering the optimisation of resources and the professional and efficient operation of our work vehicles.

If you’d like to find out more information about the solutions we can provide, don’t hesitate to contact us: https://claitec.com/en/contact/

Keeping your company safe means protecting the people that make it what it is. When it comes to responding to an emergency, those people and your company are put at risk. The best way to keep everyone safe is to take the time and create an emergency evacuation plan. But in order to have an effective evacuation plan, your company needs to keep some important things in mind.

Setting Expectations

The key to creating and maintaining an effective emergency plan begins with knowing exactly what you want. It is important to know the necessary timeframe for a successful evacuation, and where employees are expected to go during the emergency. The ‘where’ and ‘evacuation time’ are the most important expectations to get in order. These must be based on the risks of your company in particular. You cannot properly institute risk prevention policies without being aware of the potential risks you face.

In the event of a serious emergency, there may be areas of the building that are more likely to be compromised than others: rooms containing highly flammable substances, areas with obstructions, etc. This means that these parts of the building should be avoided during an evacuation. In the case of the storage of combustible or other potentially harmful materials, an evacuation point should be a safe distance away from these areas.

How long you have to evacuate will mainly be dependent on the types of risks your company faces. Always plan for the timeframe of the emergency that has the shortest time allotted for evacuation. That way you can evacuate fast enough to protect your employees no matter what happens.

Alternative Evacuation

We all know the saying about best-laid plans, and how they often go awry. An emergency evacuation plan should take this into account most of all. As much as you can try to expect the unexpected, there are always complications. People can panic and create unanticipated problems for even the best plans. Similarly, safety measures you planned to rely on could fail in the moment. That is why a truly effective evacuation strategy is somewhat fluid. A comprehensive workplace safety model will take all these factors into account, in order to craft a seamless emergency evacuation strategy.

There should never be one available exit path or one relied upon rendezvous point. These are just not reliable enough to stake the well-being of all your employees on. The confusion that can ensue during an emergency is often due to excessively rigid evacuation plans. That rigidity can make all the preparation worthless. That is why training and planning must be dynamic. In these extreme and unpredictable situations being able to account for employees is a must. At the end of the day, it is about making sure everyone is safe.

Practice

An emergency plan is not complete without a plan of how to teach it and train people to use it. And far too often practice breeds complacency. Employees and even employers begin to simply go through the motions of drills and training. I believe that all forms of practice must be somewhat confrontational in order to be effective. This is not to say that these drills and planning sessions should be disrespectful, but they should challenge employees. The expectations that you have set should be maintained, and there should be experimentation with alternative evacuations.

One of the best methods of practice is to simply ask employees about the evacuation plan. When they propose a way of exiting the building, have a probable means of denying it. They say, “I would use the emergency exit at the end of the hall.” You respond, “The roof over that exit has caved in. What do you do?” This shakes people out of complacency. They are no longer being led or relying solely on what they already know.

This kind of confrontational preparation gets the mind working in the ways needed to solve problems during the high stress of an emergency. Also, businesses can incentivize their employees to encourage more participation in the safety program. Furthermore, rigorous practice helps highlight workplace risks that come in handy during a workplace risk assessment.

The Safety Mindset

There is a cost to safety. It takes both an investment of time and money to create the most effective plans. You will need to set aside time to train employees on safety procedures and the proper way evacuate. And training, drills, and other forms of practice must be ongoing to assure the effectiveness of the overall safety strategy. The company will also need to have effective safety and security technology.

As mentioned above, tracking your employees is invaluable for evacuation planning. Not only will you be able to know that everyone made it out, in the worst case scenario you will be able to point emergency responders in the right direction. It is also important to have the physical safety and security devices in the building working effectively.

Doors and locks are especially important, as malfunctions of this type can lead to lockouts, trapping employees during an emergency. Sticking doors, locks that are not turning smoothly, etc., should be seen as red flags.

Most of the time security professionals can salvage this type of security hardware with maintenance, but you must always be willing to invest in installing new commercial locks. There are a good selection of warehouse locks that can be used to bolster your warehouse security and keep your emergency evacuation plan well rounded. Whenever something is not working, you cannot shy away from the cost of safety.

Final Thoughts

To have an effective emergency plan, you need to know what you are looking to accomplish. Where people are evacuating to, and how fast they need to get there. There must be room for things to change without causing a catastrophic breakdown in the plan. This comes from dynamic and confrontational practice methods. And at the end of the day, the willingness to invest the resources into this preparedness will determine how safe your employees and company are.

We discussed in previous posts the importance of guaranteeing forklift safety as well as the different ways through which we can improve accident prevention levels within our industries and work spaces. Today, we would like to expand on these areas and explain the multiple benefits of a very useful and easy to deploy tool: the PCS Solution.

Especially designed to ensure the physical integrity of pedestrians in crossings but applicable to any parts of the journey in industrial spaces, the PCS Solution warns the forklift by previously installed traffic lights the presence and eventual crossing of pedestrians in its work area. This way, the operator handling a load and concentrating on the driving of heavy vehicles, is able to notice the presence nearby of a pedestrian and can take precautionary measures, significantly reducing accidents and risks of running employees over.

The implementation of the PCS system very simple. Apart from the traffic lights, pedestrians circulating in the facility must carry small tags – similar to a keychain -, which will emit light signals when detected by a previously installed RFID activator. That same activator oversees the sending of the signal to the traffic lights, indicating in this manner the presence of a person in the place in question.

All these elements are very easy to implement and a especially durable and robust.

This system is generally used in pedestrian crossing areas, pedestrian and forklift intersections, spaces with a lot of forklift movement, loading and unloading areas and merchandise storage spaces, among others.

Keen to find out more about the PCS Solution?

You can read about in our website, or contact us directly about this or any other of our products which might be of your interest.