Ready, Safe + Sound: Building a Sustainable Safety Culture in Automated Warehouses
June 4, 2025
Will Weatherford, Vice President of Environmental, Health, and Safety at Dematic, brings you up to date on a culture that promotes health and safety for our customers, our partners, and for us.
Safety is the foundation of every successful operation — especially in environments where automation and advanced technology are at work. As your operations evolves with new systems and processes, it’s important for your safety culture to evolve too.
Dematic is in the third year of our pledge to being Ready, Safe + Sound (RS+S) to help drive a sustainable safety culture, which is an important part of our business strategy and sustainability priorities. Across all countries and operations, we commit to being ready to perform our jobs by following processes and training with the proper mindset, emotional health, and physical well-being and by practicing techniques like the buddy system to look out for one another.
Our 2024 safety metrics reflect this pledge, with a 41.4% yearly reduction in Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR), 22% fewer injuries, and, most notably, zero significant injuries.
By looking at safety objectively, we find ways to improve
We’ve conducted over 70,000 behavioral-based safety observations, equivalent to over 8,000 hours of safety engagement, to observe employees performing critical tasks and promote safety. These proactive work observations contribute to the ongoing reduction of injuries across Dematic operations.
We also certified 100% of our Dematic operations in 2024 for ISO 45001 management systems. And we piloted a new emergency management system to proactively inform employees, vendors, and contractors during emergency situations. Within seconds of a crisis event, Dematic will send multi-channel alerts via email, text, voice call, and app notification to inform effected team members of the crisis and provide instructions.
We have invested in the right platforms and use them regularly to monitor performance, and we are pleased with our past success. Still, we know, past performance is never a guarantee of future success. It takes constant commitment, vigilance, and proactively addressing risk with procedural adherence and method statements of safe work.
Safety tips for highly automated warehouses and distribution centers
- Prioritize Safety: Prioritize your environment, your team, and integrate health and safety in all you do to prevent workplace injuries and create a sustainable safety culture.
- Highlight and Address Risks: Every facility, especially those with automation, has unique safety risks. When installing or operating automation systems, the environment can resemble a construction site, introducing additional hazards. Identify these risks and implement procedures to avoid them.
- Start Every Meeting with a Safety Moment: Use dedicated safety presentation materials to keep safety top of mind and encourage open discussion about potential hazards and safe practices.
- Set Clear Expectations for Subcontractors and Visitors: Ensure all third-party personnel understand and follow your facility’s safety protocols, especially when working around automated equipment.
- Focus on Injury Prevention: Reinforce hand injury prevention tips to prevent this leading cause of incidents in warehouse environments.
- Address Human Factors: Discuss the mindsets that can lead to accidents — such as rushing, frustration, complacency, and fatigue. Encourage employees to recognize and address these factors before they result in harm.
- Host Safety Rallies and Training: Organize regular safety rallies and training sessions to reinforce safe behaviors and ensure everyone is aware of the latest procedures and emergency protocols.
- Leverage Technology for Safety: Use automation and advanced analytics not just for efficiency, but also to monitor safety metrics, predict potential hazards, and optimize workflows to minimize risk.
- Maintain a Project First Mindset: Ensure that all solutions and changes are delivered with safety as a top priority, meeting the needs of both the operation and the people working within it.
Our Environmental, Health, and Safety team provides the structure of a sustainable safety culture that relies on systems-related safety aspects. Incorporating these steps, we deliver a consistent approach to integrate readiness and safety in all phases of our program delivery with specific safety check points at each tollgate.
Let this safety month of June remind us to make safety a priority every step of the way, in everything we do. Each of us own the responsibility for creating and maintaining a safe work, requiring daily engagement among supervisors, managers, and employees. If a task or environment is not safe, pause, assess the situation, stop work if needed, and escalate the situation until everyone is satisfied that it’s clear to proceed.
As always, think safety first.