Hyne Timber make warehouse operations safer with safety corridor
Moving heavy packs of timber on forklifts through warehouses while managing pedestrians is a high-risk task for many drivers and workers, but not now for Maryborough's Hyne Timber.
As recent winners of the 2023 Work Well Awards Best solution to an identified work health and safety issue, Hyne Timber may have found a solution that keeps their team members smiling every day.
To make warehouse operations and pedestrian movement as safe as possible, while still allowing for efficient movement around the warehouse, the company designed and installed a safety corridor and updated its traffic management controls. This included LED strobe lights and rotating beacons to ensure eye adaptation from light to dark environments (moving in and out of the safety corridor), ‘stop and think’ gates and tactile indicator pads at one end of the corridor like a traffic roadway to alert pedestrians of vehicle activity ahead. The corridor itself can withstand quite considerable force, so pedestrians can move freely around the warehouse, without the risk of injury from falling timber or being struck by a forklift.
Hyne Timber's HSE Business Partner Brad said there's been a shift in culture since the wall has gone in.
"It's really been a catalyst where we've installed a really a hard control, a really strong control, and it's showed to the teams that we can actually do this.
"It's really empowered them to have a growth mindset when we look at controls, so we can look at the gold-plated control, the silver and the bronze, and then we can present that up to our leadership team to make a decision.”
Stakeholder Engagement Manger James Hyne said it's highly important for the senior management of the company to set a culture of safety within the business.
"We'd give anyone the authority to ensure that if something's not safe, they pull up and ensure whatever the problem is, it’s dealt with straight away."
Site Manager David McInnes said through this safety improvement, you can see this just motivates people to keep kicking more goals.
"Health and safety's not only a legislative responsibility, it's a moral obligation to make sure all our employees go home safely at the end of the day," Mr McInnes said.