Blog

When a company experiences a period of rapid growth and runs out of workspace, this can cause a problem. However, it is one that can be solved with a mezzanine floor.

An expanding company needs more space for a variety of uses. New office staff are recruited and need desk space, manufacturing companies need more parts and raw materials, online orders increase and shelf space is needed to store extra stock.

An expanding company is not necessarily a cash-rich company; money is spent on recruitin...

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to systems of internet connected devices, and IoT equipment can contribute to the health and safety of workers.

Devices containing sensors can monitor many aspects of the workplace, including temperature, humidity, the density of people moving in areas, carbon monoxide monitoring and detecting dangerous levels of harmful gases. When many devices collect and share data, this can then be used to spot potential hazardous areas in the workspace.

The information...

Awareness of disability issues is not just about meeting the needs of disabled people; it also involves the health and safety of all employees.

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) makes it compulsory for all workplace buildings to have access for disabled people.

If a feature of a building such as steps leading to a doorway prevent access to disabled persons, then they should either be removed or equipment such as ramps installed to provide access. Alternatively, an alternate route needs ...

Despite the rise of automation in large warehouses such as those owned by e-retail giant Amazon, most small to medium warehouses still rely on manual handling. It is important to protect workers from the health and safety risks associated with this task.

Any operation that involves pushing, pulling, lowering and lifting can be a hazard. It is vital that all staff operating manual handling equipment, such as sack trucks and pallet trucks, receive adequate training in their safe use.

It is...

In an unusual move, a company in Lenexa, Kansas has relocated its warehouse to an underground cave in a former limestone mine.

The company says that there are several advantages to this location. The cave is unaffected by weather and maintains a constant 68°F temperature. This is important as the company deals in vending machines, and a fleet of vans is used to carry food products that fill up the machines. On cold nights, if the vans were left outside, the contents could freeze and spoil. Par...

Manual handling usually forms some part of almost any job, but there are some key health and safety points that need addressing.

While Amazon and other large retailers have massive warehouses that use robots to replace most of their manual handling processes, most smaller warehouses do not have the budget to employ robots. Indeed, many do not even have forklift trucks and must rely on manual handling to store and pick items from the warehouse.

Manual handling is defined as any form of handlin...

With incidents like the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower still fresh in the mind, the need for fire risk assessments to protect a workplace has never been more pertinent.

A fire risk assessment is required by law. It can be carried out by a competent member of the business with sufficient training and experience, including knowledge of PAS 79, which sets out how to undertake a fire risk assessment. There are a number of companies that will carry out the assessment for you.

There are two basic par...

New developments in drone technology could help locate items stored in warehouses.

Warehouses that keep a large range of items on pallet racking systems often use radio frequency identity tags (RFID) tags that broadcast their identity to scanners. These tags require no battery power and are inexpensive to produce. However, the system is not always efficient.

In the USA, retailer Walmart estimates that it has lost $3bn due to a mismatch between inventory records and actual stock numbers. Wor...

An innovative student has come up with a product called ‘Rest’ that uses backrests from office chairs to make backpacks.

Most businesses throw away their old office chairs when they wear out, as most recycling schemes cannot use them. It is estimated that over 800,000 office chairs are thrown away by UK businesses each year.

To combat this waste, a Product Design student at Birmingham City University, Thomas Howell-Jones, collected several old office chairs and decided that he would find a pu...

Residents in Gloucester are encouraged to separate their rubbish into various recycling bins, so it seems a reasonable assumption that all the rubbish would be kept separate when it was collected. A resident from the suburb of Elmridge, however, spotted that when the rubbish truck arrived outside their home, all the rubbish from the various recycling bins was tipped into the same area in the rubbish truck.

Gloucester Council has confirmed that this was happening, but says it is not a mistake. T...