Keeping You Safe and Prepared
Morris Packaging strives to be an industry leader in safety, and protecting our people is our #1 priority. In order to be a leader in safety, you must first assess what the main safety concerns are within your environment. We perform a regular hazard analysis allowing us to determine the best ways to address safety concerns, prevent injury, and keep YOU safe! The main manufacturing safety challenges that the industry faces are ergonomics, pinch points, lockout – tagout, forklift safety, and facility cleanliness. Read along to learn about how Morris keeps you safe and prepared with world-class safety training, lighted walkways, air ride seats, roller conveyors, blue lights on forklifts, and maintaining an incredibly clean facility!
Ergonomics
When performing our ergonomic assessment, it was revealed that the height of the pack out stations could be a potential strenuous risk. Our safety initiatives allowed us to spend time ensuring the proper height of the stations so that they are not only comfortable but are ergonomically correct. Studying the ergonomics of each workstation sets our team up for success as the environment should be designed to fit the employees, not the other way around. To fit this need we installed roller belts which allow for finished goods to easily move to the next station with little force in a nearly one-handed fashion. Creating this simple change significantly reduces strain on our employee’s bodies!
A few other ways that we address ergonomics and reduce safety hazards are by providing a climate-controlled environment to minimize stress on the body, water bottles with fill stations, anti-fatigue mats at our standing stations, and adding air ride seats within forklifts to reduce strains on one’s back. We also provide annual reimbursements to each team member for protective footwear so that they are able to come to work comfortably and leave comfortably.
Maintaining a constant temperature year round keeps your body from experiencing heat or cold related injuries. Providing water bottles and filtered fill stations promotes hydration in our team members. Introducing air ride seats within our forklifts increases comfort and reduces the risk of back injuries. There are many ways that organizations can prepare their environment to fit their team and we will always assess our facility to ensure that you are safe!
Pinch Points
A common, but very preventable, safety hazard within manufacturing facilities are pinch points. We provide machine guarding and light curtains on our equipment to protect you from coming into contact with pinch points. Pinch points are commonly described as moving components of machinery that could cause injury to body parts if placed into the moving parts. Light curtains will automatically stop a machine as light breaks through when it is not supposed to. We have installed hard guards over pinch points that we do not need to see or need to access. When there is a pinch point that we may need to see but do not need access to touch, we install plexiglass guarding to maintain visibility, but you remain protected.
Lockout – Tagout
An environment cannot be safe unless all equipment is up to standard, properly marked, and properly maintained. There may come a time when a machine must be cleaned or maintenance must be performed. This can never be performed on a machine that is running! The lockout – tagout process allows our team to safely perform regular maintenance.
Upon hiring, in your new hire orientation, you will undergo lockout – tagout training and then will undergo annual training to ensure that you follow all steps of each machine’s procedure. We hire subject matter experts to handle all aspects of our lockout-tagout program, including training our employees! This process is addressed annually to maintain the strongest program that we can and keep up with updated code requirements. In the field of manufacturing, many facilities may be thought of as dirty and oftentimes this is due to improper cleanliness of your equipment. We take pride in our clean environment and once a month we stop production for eight hours to fully clean each machine. Lockout – Tagout procedures are crucial to maintaining our extremely clean environment.
Forklift
Forklift safety is a key component to providing a safe working environment for all Morris employees. Safe forklift and pedestrian interaction are a vital part of the Morris Packaging Safety Program. Efforts Morris Packaging has made in our endeavor to become World Class are we provide exceptional forklift training, both in the classroom training and hands on driving training, as well as we provide a recertification program for existing drivers to ensure their skills sets meet our standards.
Morris has added blue safety lights to the front and back of all forklifts which shine an area on the floor approximately 10 feet in front of and behind the forklift. This alerts pedestrians that a forklift may be moving near them before it reaches them. We have also added air ride seats to forklifts to reduce back strains caused by forklifts.
When a team member is walking through a heavily trafficked forklift area, we have created pedestrian walkways that are illuminated by overhead projector lights. This system ensures that each member of our team is right where they need to be to protect themselves and protect others.
Our Safety Manager, Faron Morris, says, “We work everyday to build a safety culture where safety is not a priority, priorities change. Safety is a value, it something we stand for and won’t waiver from. We move safety from our head, to our heart. It’s what we do.” Our team has taken many initiatives to maintain a safe environment. We will always strive to be a leader in safety and we encourage you to experience safety with Morris Packaging! Check out our open career opportunities and find your place with Morris today.
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Morris Packaging was formed with a strong vision after seeing a need in the industry. We’ve assembled the best team in the business to serve our customers. When you choose Morris Packaging, you work with people who believe in the power of collaborative relationships, transparency, and outstanding service. We are dedicated to creating sustainable, eco-friendly packaging solutions. To learn more about Morris Packaging or to join our team, contact us at 800-856-7627 or 309-663-9100. You can also get in touch with us by email at info@morrispkg.com for Sales & Marketing or hr@morrispkg.com for Human Resources.