If your loading equipment breaks down, this can cause a critical disruption that significantly impacts your warehousing operations. It can also pose a significant safety risk to your employees if it shuts down or breaks while in use. With this in mind, it is vital to implement a preventive, proactive approach to maintenance of your loading bay equipment. However, if this doesn’t happen, you will need to know what to do to sort the problem out.
In this post, we will explain how to initially deal with a breakdown incident as well as what to do to prevent such a breakdown happening again.
Quick response is vital
Not only can a delayed response to equipment breakdown lead to a safety hazard, but it can also increase costs, setback a project, and ruin your reputation. The strategy you should implement should focus on trying to reduce any safety risks it poses, diagnosing the issue properly, and then working out what to do to get your equipment up and running correctly.
First steps when a piece of equipment breaks down
Stop – Firstly, it is vital that you stop using the equipment immediately. Remove any staff that do not need to be in the area, to make it as safe as possible.
Isolate the area and assess the risks – Cordon off the area if possible to ensure that you are keeping a safe perimeter. Then you can contact support and repair services who can properly diagnose the problem and help to effect your loading equipment repairs.
Investigate and plan for preventative maintenance – Once you have all the information on what has gone wrong, and why, it is vital to put together a report and plan to ensure this does not happen again.
Why your equipment might have broken down
The common causes of equipment breakdown need to be understood in order to Inform those working within the environment as to how to prevent future accidents. Causes can include poor maintenance, operator error, or the environmental conditions at the time of the incident. Careful investigation and reporting is vital in creating a plan to stop the issue presenting again.
Prevention – What you need to know
It is vital that warehouse owners implement preventative measures to avoid the future breakdown of your loading bay equipment.
Arranging routine and schedule maintenance – This can help to reduce the risk of any breakdowns due to wear and tear. Arrange for a qualified engineer to visit and ensure they inspect all the vital parts of your equipment. They can then help to suggest preventive measures such as lubrication, replacement of parts and calibration to avoid issues.
Employee training -If the accident happened because one of your operators was at fault, then it is important to make sure that any gaps in training are filled. All of your operators should already be trained in emergency measures. Should your equipment fail, it is wise to refresh this, as well as explaining to your team, what went wrong and how they can help to prevent it happening again – without blame. It is important to reiterate to them that if they spot any small problems with the loading bay equipment, they should report these promptly so that they can be taken care of.
The wider problems with breakdowns
Not only can a loading bay equipment breakdown cause a safety issue, and put a halt to your operations, it can also highlight a larger issue within your warehouse environment. Thorough investigation of the faults, preventative maintenance of your equipment and thorough staff training can help to avoid the same thing happening again. This can help to avoid the heavy costs that come with equipment breakdown on site.
