12 A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO DC VELOCITY
NA TIONAL FORKLIFT
SAFE TY DAY
are skilled workers, and it’s important to treat them
with respect,” O’Connor says.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TECHNOLOGY
Because OSHA requires classroom and hands-on
training, there is definitely still a role for “
old-fashioned” instructional methods like classroom lectures, Hyster’s Boyd points out. And there is simply
no substitute for hands-on training on the truck
itself. But there’s no need for safety managers to
limit training to those methods, nor should they, he
says. Instead, trainers are free to use other methods to supplement—not replace—what’s mandated by the regulation.
One common way to
do that is through videos. This allows trainees
to view and learn from
situations that can’t be
replicated at their facility.
O’Connor cites the example of forklift accidents.
“A lot of workers have
never seen accidents,”
which is a good thing,
he says. But it’s critical
that they understand
how they happen and what the consequences
are. Showing them accidents in a video or photos
“wakes them up” and reinforces the seriousness of
the lesson, he says.
Another way to use videos is to show safe operation in different work environments and situations.
“Each environment is different, and they all come
with their own safety requirements, hazards, and
cautions,” O’Connor says. “A video can demonstrate that without physically going there. But of
course you always reinforce that information with
hands-on practice.”
CONSIDER GOING VIRTUAL
A fast-growing trend in supplemental instruction
that’s quickly gaining fans is virtual reality for oper-
ator training. In the past few years, several compa-
nies, including Yale Materials Handling Corp., Hyster
Co., The Raymond Corp., FL-Simulators, NextWave
Safety Solutions Inc., and Tactus Technologies, have
developed products that simulate forklift operation
using virtual reality (VR). The trainee dons the VR
Learning to operate a lift truck in a virtual envi-
ronment does not replace the valuable experience
a student gets from operating a truck in an actual
warehouse or DC, says Dave Norton, Raymond’s
vice president of corporate quality and customer
care. But a VR instruc-
tional tool still offers
many advantages, he
says. For one thing, new
operators can become
comfortable with the lift
truck before operating it
in a warehouse, without
risk to people, products,
structures, or equipment.
For another, operators
using virtual reality can
be more confident and
practiced in handling different warehouse scenar-
ios, including incident avoidance and emergency
maneuvers.
VR can also provide a safe way to evaluate job
candidates’ skills before they take a “road test.”
And it can help instructors identify employees’
strengths and weaknesses so instruction can be
tailored to individual students, Norton says. In
Raymond’s product, he adds, instructors can view
exactly what the trainee is seeing in the headset,
which allows the instructor to give real-time feedback to the student.
With so many practices, strategies, and protocols to teach, forklift safety training may seem
daunting. It is complex, but if you do as the forklift
manufacturers do for their own employees—that
is, create a safety-focused culture, comply with
the applicable regulations, conduct refresher training when needed, and use a variety of methods to provide additional instruction beyond what
the regulations require—you’ll have a safer work
environment. ;
