Bausch Health in Schiphol-Rijk has the safest warehouse in the Netherlands. The eye care products distributor scored just better than the warehouses of Vistaprint (silver), Jumbo Supermarkets (silver) and Pon Logistics (bronze).
The jury had nominated four warehouses from all entries for the safety award, which was presented during the Day of the Warehouse on 8 November. The gold went to Bausch Health, which received a cheque for 1,000 euros.
Bausch Haulth won, according to the jury, partly because of the good working atmosphere at the company. "Bausch Health has a complex operation with large volumes and a complex layout. They deal with this excellently,"explained jury chairman René de Koster, professor of logistics and operations management at Erasmus University Rotterdam. "Bausch Health is very committed to safety and invests a lot in it. Moreover, the company has a very good working atmosphere."
Complex operation
Bausch Health supplies eye care products such as contact lenses and lens solutions. More than 15,000 orders are processed daily in a partially automated operation. De Koster was impressed by this company's efforts to create a safe working environment. "We have had candidates from the health sector before. As a jury, we expect the level of safety in warehouses from this sector to be higher than in an average warehouse. But Bausch Health, unlike many health warehouses, has a complex operation with different processes, large volumes and an extremely difficult layout. They handle this very well. The safety level is clearly higher than in the other three candidates."
People make the difference'
Jeroen Brinkhuis of Bausch Haulth gave all credit to the employees in the warehouse when receiving the award. "We have a warehouse with 30 nationalities on the floor. Those people make the difference. They are the people who report unsafe situations, who call each other to account for unsafe behaviour and who cooperate in improvement processes," said Bausch Health's facilities and EHS+S manager. "But safety is never finished. This award gives the boost to work even harder on safety."
One of the safety projects that the jury praised in the comments was Safe Home Safe. "Of course we want everyone to go home safely at the end of the day. But it doesn't stop there as far as we are concerned. We want all employees to take safety awareness home with them. If that succeeds, we know they are intrinsically motivated to work safely," says Brinkhuis, who also puts his employees to the test. "Members of the management team sometimes display deliberately unsafe behaviour. If someone calls us on it, they get an immediate reward. After all, that is the behaviour we want to see."
A safety culture must also be present on the shop floor
De Koster praised not only Bausch Health, but also the silver and bronze winners who also went home with a cheque. "We see more often that management has safety high on the agenda. But the trick is to transfer that safety awareness to the people on the floor. And then to translate that safety awareness into safe behaviour. This last step in particular is anything but obvious. All four nominees stand out from the other companies in the Netherlands in this area."
Besides the human factor, the factors of technology and environment also determine safety on the shop floor. Bausch Health has also invested in these. "We originally had a walkway in the middle of the warehouse. That led to many crossings, 25 in total. We implemented a traffic plan, shifting that walkway towards the wall. Now there are only two crossings left, which are also protected by a swing gate. At the same time, we trained the office staff in safe behaviour: wear safety shoes, put on a safety vest and make eye contact with forklift drivers."
