Using technology to make materials handling safer

Mobile equipment, particularly forklifts, is associated with a large number of workplace injuries. Many industrial worksites present potentially high-risk environments to pedestrian workers who need to work in close proximity to mobile equipment. While physical separation of pedestrians and mobile equipment traffic is the most effective way to prevent mobile equipment-related pedestrian injuries, it is not always practical. Intelligent transport systems (ITS) have significant potential to enhance industrial safety. Although ITS devices are being increasingly used in road transportation, relatively little work has been done to deploy such systems in the industrial domain.

Mobile equipment including forklifts, mobile cranes and trucks plays an indispensable role in today's industrial sites. While the benefit of this equipment on industrial productivity is unquestionable, such equipment continues to be a major safety concern in the workplace.

The forklift truck is perhaps the most commonly used type of industrial mobile equipment. Forklifts are now essential tools in many manufacturing, logistics, retail and transport operations. The forklifts used in industrial sites range from small trucks with capacity less than one tonne to large container handlers with over 40 tonne capacity. The versatility of forklifts and the benefits such as improved operational productivity and the reduced need for manual handling of materials provided by them have resulted in widespread use of forklift trucks in the industry. Unfortunately, however, forklift-related crashes contribute a significant proportion of workplace fatalities all over the world as well as an immense number of serious and minor injuries. While forklift crashes occur across all industry sectors, forklift-related fatalities are particularly high within the manufacturing sector.

Forklifts were associated with 48 fatalities in Victorian workplaces from January 1985 to January 2003. During the same period more than 6000 people suffered forklift-related injuries for which over $130 million has been paid in claims payments. Pedestrians comprise a significant proportion of the fatalities and injuries related to forklifts.

Because forklifts and other industrial mobile equipment are typically heavy and powerful and are of relatively rigid construction, crashes involving such equipment can seriously injure pedestrians and cause damage to goods, buildings or other vehicles. In industrial sites where different types of mobile equipment have to operate amongst pedestrian workers, proper management of pedestrian and vehicular traffic is critical to productivity and safety.

The hierarchy of controls presents in a rank order measures that can be used to remove or reduce risk in the workplace. These include:

• Eliminate the hazard
• Substitute the hazard
• Use engineering controls
• Use administrative controls
• Use personal protective equipment.

The higher ranked controls are more effective than the lower ranked controls. The lower order controls should be used only if the higher order controls are not practical or if used in addition to higher order measures to provide added protection.

In applying the hierarchy of controls for the problem of forklift-related injuries, elimination of forklifts altogether from the workplace is the most effective approach. It is, however, not practical in most situations. Designing the environment such that forklifts never come into contact with pedestrians can also eliminate the problem. This is best performed at the design stage of a new industrial site or facility, as modification of existing sites to achieve the desired physical separation may be difficult and costly.

If eliminating the problem is not practical, the next most effective solution is to substitute the hazard with a safer alternative. For example, where possible, forklifts must be substituted by hand lifts, hand pallet trucks, overhead cranes or roller conveyers to reduce the hazard.

Engineering controls such as provision of barriers, guarding of protruding and sharp parts of forklifts and installation of traffic lights and booms provide the next level of protection.

The administrative controls include forklift operator training and licensing, pre-operational checking procedures, tag and interlock procedures and job design.

As a last resort, all operators and pedestrian workers should wear appropriate personal protective equipment including hard hats and high-visibility vests.

The ITS technologies comprise (1) vehicle-based technologies (2) infrastructure/environment-based technologies and (3) cooperative technologies.

The vehicle-based technologies include systems such as speed limiting devices, collision warning radar, alcohol ignition interlock, engine immobilisation and blind-spot detection systems.

The infrastructure/environment-based ITS consists of sensors in the environment that collect information and transmit to the drivers via interfaces such as variable message signs (eg, warning of adverse road conditions ahead).

Cooperative-based ITS technologies derive information from the environment and/or from other vehicles and transmit to the operator (eg, detect the approach of an emergency vehicle towards an intersection and alert other vehicles at the intersection).

ITS systems such as mayday, drowsy driver detection, alcohol-ignition interlock, adaptive cruise control, night vision, GPS-based route selection and collision avoidance systems are designed to improve vehicle safety. Other ITS systems, including advisory speed safety signs, variable speed limit signs, speed enforcement cameras and variable road safety message signs improve road safety. Automatic congestion and incident detection system, travel time information, automatic tolling, etc help to reduce congestion on roads and improve efficiency and productivity.

Although there has been significant uptake of ITS technologies in road transportation, to date, these applications have received comparatively little attention in the industrial domain. Intelligent Systems, however, have shown significant potential to improve industrial traffic management and safety.