Safe Approaches to Innovation Across America

One of the things that I love most about my job is visiting manufacturing and distribution facilities across the country - our team gets to see how products are made, packaged and distributed. From our viewpoint, manufacturing and material handling in America is alive and well.

That observation was confirmed by the Institute for Supply Management’s monthly Manufacturing Report on Business, released earlier this month. You can read more about that report here, but it indicated growth in ten of the 18 manufacturing sectors.

We are fortunate to produce so many products in America. We’ve recently been in a number of food and chemical processing facilities. It’s fascinating to see the innovative ways products in the United States are made, and we always get excited about the opportunity to be a part of that process.

Employees in these facilities work really hard to make, package and distribute the products we use and love. Often in food and chemical facilities there are people that must lift products and pour them into mixers, which is physically challenging - especially considering that these areas are not very wide or deep. Employee safety is of utmost importance, especially since many workers’ jobs are physically tiring and challenging.

I’ve definitely noticed a change in attitude regarding safety over the twenty plus years of working in the material handling industry. When I first started in this industry there was often a disconnect between the multiple managers in the company. A typical scenario involved a safety officer who was looking to create the safest environment possible, the operations team who wanted to get production moving as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the executive team who was concerned with the costs of modifying areas of the plant.

Today, I see a lot more collaboration between these groups. The safety manager is being invited into the operations discussions to make sure what they are planning to do will be safe. Safety personnel are reaching out to the operations team to make sure the safety devices will integrate well with their operations. The executive group views safety solutions as an investment, and by pro-actively implementing safety solutions they will incur cost savings for the company in the long term.

As a provider of safety solutions, I can say that all of this collaboration has made for much safer, more efficient environments, where everyone is engaged and working towards the same goals.

In our innovative facilities across the country, safety is not a luxury, but a must. If your facility has an area that needs securing, we can provide a dual-gate solution that will provide a safe environment for your employees at all times.