Newsletter #231 (View other news stories)
David Hoover: How qualified are your forklift operators?
NEWARK, OH, United States
Thursday, 20 Oct 2005
David Hoover is president of Forklift Training Systems Inc, a US safety company specialising in site and forklift safety training, training trainers, custom program development and cutting-edge forklift safety products. Contact David Hoover.
Not long ago, I was doing driving evaluations at a customer location. Most operators were highly skilled, competent to operate the forklifts and I could certify them for their environment. A few, however, complained about the difficulty of things I asked of them during the hands-on evaluation phase. They said: "I don’t usually lift items that high, or I don’t often have to load a trailer, or I never have to drive in reverse."
They said the last time they were evaluated they were exempted from having to do those more difficult skills by the trainer. That statement provoked several thoughts. The first was that they might have to perform those tasks in the future, when no one else was available, or if they moved to another department where those tasks might be required. The second was that we don’t offer "junior" forklift permits for forward only or just the first two layers of storage racks.
When surveying a customer location, we look at the basic skills an operator must possess, including things like proficiency and the ability to get things done on a timely basis. Taking 20 minutes to stack a pallet may be OK in some applications, but in a high-cycle environment it would never cut it. The trainer must look at the demands that will be put on a specific operator, on a certain type of lift and in a specific application and then determine if the person can perform at that level.
If they cannot, the answer to getting them "up to speed" is supervised practice. For some operators, lifts and applications, that may take hours, for others weeks. There is no "instant" forklift operator, no matter how badly production would like to have them up and running. Rushing the process can spell disaster for the operator or a co-worker.
Trainers must take their jobs seriously and look at operators’ skills, not their personalities or other aspects. Sliding everyone through, no matter what the skill level, is a thing of the past and something we don’t want to continue for safety’s sake. My advice to trainers is to train people thoroughly invest time in getting them up to speed, and then expect a certain level of proficiency before handing them the keys.
|
CURRENT NEWS
|
