“We can’t be quiet about safety nowadays—and that's what's great about Density, it's visual and makes it immediately clear for our workers. After installing Safe Displays throughout spaces in our warehouse, we’ve decreased the number of social interactions within 6 feet by 10x.”
Offices have been closed for months. During that time, many companies have been re-evaluating their physical space. How much do they need? Will employees return or stay remote? However, while many businesses have had time to plan their eventual return, some never went home. Warehouses and manufacturers have not been able to shut their doors. Online shopping has boomed during the quarantine and these organizations have stayed hard at work to meet the demand. Remaining on-site means that any new safety protocols to protect against the virus and encourage social distancing have had to be implemented on the fly.
These companies employ tens of thousands of people in warehouses. Ensuring employee safety while boosting productivity is a balancing act, and companies are looking for practical solutions. Recommendations from OSHA and the CDC offer various ways manufacturers can prepare their space to accommodate COVID-safety practices. For example, warehouses should encourage employees to avoid using the same equipment as their co-workers. They suggest additional cleaning procedures to disinfect communal areas and high-touch surfaces like door handles, push plates, buckets, and machinery. Companies should also consider staggering employee scheduling to limit daily occupancy and provide facilities teams ample time to clean between shifts.
To learn more, we spoke with our Fortune 100 customers about their experience preparing warehouses for COVID-compliance. What we found is that managers are looking for ways to protect employees and streamline production. In order to do both and keep up with increased manufacturing demand, our customers need to validate their strategies with reliable usage data. Our occupancy platform helps them monitor real-time busyness throughout facilities, target hotspots that require additional service, plan and enforce safe footpaths that limit employee overlap, and identify when restrooms and break areas have been frequented and need cleaning.
These conversations helped us form our Five Ways to Keep Warehouses Safely Open. In the guide, we explore how data can shore up safety practices and confirm that resources are distributed effectively when addressing concerns.