{"id":106273,"date":"2023-08-22T11:48:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T15:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/?p=106273"},"modified":"2025-03-03T07:28:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T12:28:51","slug":"toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom\u2019s Takes: Summer 2023 Safety Insights \u2013 Assessing Distribution Industry Workplace Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>\n<p><strong><em><strong>Volume 2, Issue 5<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this issue of Tom\u2019s Takes, we review some of the top summer of 2023 storylines regarding safety in the distribution industry workplace. Amazon released its second <a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-safety.aboutamazon.com\/ea\/c3\/d72d03394d0db22e336048031ec8\/amazon-safety-report-2022-v41.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cDelivered with Care Report\u201d in May of 2023<\/a>. The report focused on the past four years of safety, health, and well-being issues both domestically and globally. Key findings of the report included the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Since the start of 2019 through 2022, Amazon has increased its workforce by nearly 900,000 associates to over 1,500,000 globally.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Its Recordable Incident Rate (RIR) decreased by 24% over the four-year period, with an 11% reduction in 2021-22.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Its Lost Time Injury Rate (LTIR) decreased by 54% over the four-year period, with a 14% reduction in 2021-22.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Amazon has invested over $1 billion in non-COVID-related safety initiatives between 2019 and 2022, with another $550 million planned for 2023.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite these improvements reported by Amazon, <a href=\"https:\/\/thesoc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/SOC_In-Denial_Amazon-Injury-Report-April-2023.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an April 2023 report<\/a> by the Strategic Organizing Centre (SOC), a coalition of three labour unions that represents over 2.5 million workers, reviewed the 2022 data supplied to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) by Amazon and cited the following statistics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 2022, the Serious Injury Rate, a non-regulatory metric disputed by Amazon, was 6.6 per 100 workers vs. 3.2 for non-Amazon distribution centers. This metric was down 3% from the 2021 calculated rate of 6.8.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Despite the reduction in rate from 2021 to 2022, the overall number of injuries increased to 39,000 from 38,000 in its U.S. facilities.&nbsp; It is important to remember that the number of Amazon workers also increased during this period.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 2022, Amazon was responsible for 53% of all Serious Injuries, despite making up 36% of the overall warehousing industry headcount, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2023\/04\/15\/osha-cites-amazon-for-unsafe-warehouses-as-injury-numbers-remain-high.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">per the SOC report<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In mid-July, OSHA announced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osha.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/enforcement\/directives\/CPL_03-00-026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">national emphasis program<\/a>&nbsp;to prevent workplace hazards in warehouses, processing facilities distribution centers, and high-risk retail establishments. The three-year programme will focus on powered industrial vehicle operations, material handling and storage, walking and working surfaces, means of egress and fire protection.&nbsp;Individual states are required to adopt this plan or develop programs that are minimally equal to the federal model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-plain is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p style=\"font-size:17px\"><strong>Tom\u2019s Take \u2013 <em>As the e-commerce leader, Amazon will continue to be the bell-weather company that is benchmarked and scrutinized within the supply chain industry regarding its distribution operations and reporting results.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:17px\"><strong><em>Distribution-related work is physically demanding, and injuries \u2013 whatever metrics are used \u2013 will occur. Associates are the most valuable asset of any organisation, with the health and welfare of the staff an absolute priority. It\u2019s incumbent upon companies to continually evaluate their businesses for operational and safety improvement opportunities, like safe lifting training, job rotation, Lean principals application and forklift safety programs, to help minimize injury occurrences.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:17px\"><strong><em>In addition, as on-time delivery windows continue to shrink to same day or next day, the implementation of automation and robotics, such as Goods to Person (GTP) or Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), may assist in reducing injury rates in the future.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn how enVista can help address key supply chain challenges, such as labor, inventory and growth. <a href=\"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Let\u2019s have a conversation.\u00ae<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>enVista&#8217;s Tom Stretar offers insight into safety and distribution industry workplace risks. Learn more about warehouse safety here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":106274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3475],"tags":[3509],"class_list":["post-106273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-supply-chain"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Summer Safety: Managing Distribution Risks | enVista<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"enVista&#039;s Tom Stretar offers insight into safety and distribution industry workplace risks. Learn more about warehouse safety here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Summer Safety: Managing Distribution Risks | enVista\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"enVista&#039;s Tom Stretar offers insight into safety and distribution industry workplace risks. Learn more about warehouse safety here.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"enVista Australia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-22T15:48:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-03T12:28:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/08\/shutterstock_2135855887.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Stretar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Stretar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Summer Safety: Managing Distribution Risks | enVista","description":"enVista's Tom Stretar offers insight into safety and distribution industry workplace risks. Learn more about warehouse safety here.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Summer Safety: Managing Distribution Risks | enVista","og_description":"enVista's Tom Stretar offers insight into safety and distribution industry workplace risks. Learn more about warehouse safety here.","og_url":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/","og_site_name":"enVista Australia","article_published_time":"2023-08-22T15:48:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-03T12:28:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/08\/shutterstock_2135855887.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tom Stretar","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Stretar","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/"},"author":{"name":"Tom Stretar","@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/#\/schema\/person\/3672c6dccd6474063405748dffd7e6c4"},"headline":"Tom\u2019s Takes: Summer 2023 Safety Insights \u2013 Assessing Distribution Industry Workplace Risks","datePublished":"2023-08-22T15:48:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-03T12:28:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/"},"wordCount":498,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/08\/shutterstock_2135855887.jpg","keywords":["Supply Chain"],"articleSection":["Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/","url":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/","name":"Summer Safety: Managing Distribution Risks | enVista","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/08\/shutterstock_2135855887.jpg","datePublished":"2023-08-22T15:48:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-03T12:28:51+00:00","description":"enVista's Tom Stretar offers insight into safety and distribution industry workplace risks. Learn more about warehouse safety here.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/08\/shutterstock_2135855887.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/08\/shutterstock_2135855887.jpg","width":1000,"height":667,"caption":"A woman wearing a yellow safety helmet and vest holds a clipboard and pen, looking up at shelves filled with boxes in a warehouse, demonstrating her commitment to warehouse safety."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/2023\/08\/22\/toms-takes-summer-safety-insights-assessing-distribution-industry-workplace-risks\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tom\u2019s Takes: Summer 2023 Safety Insights \u2013 Assessing Distribution Industry Workplace Risks"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/#website","url":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/","name":"enVista Australia","description":"Enabling Enterprise Commerce","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/#organization","name":"enVista Australia","url":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/10\/enVista_Logo_White-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/10\/enVista_Logo_White-1.png","width":348,"height":152,"caption":"enVista Australia"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/#\/schema\/person\/3672c6dccd6474063405748dffd7e6c4","name":"Tom Stretar","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/369a516c3e991a407e7faa43eb87d046cc901c044b0b37860e859f839a3cc2c7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/369a516c3e991a407e7faa43eb87d046cc901c044b0b37860e859f839a3cc2c7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/369a516c3e991a407e7faa43eb87d046cc901c044b0b37860e859f839a3cc2c7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tom Stretar"},"description":"Tom Stretar is a Vice President in enVista\u2019s Technology Solution Group. With over 28 years of supply chain consulting experience, Stretar has helped transform the distribution operations of several Fortune 100 companies including AmerisourceBergen, Kroger, McKesson, PepsiCo and SYSCO.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.envistacorp.com"],"url":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/author\/tstretar\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/envistacorp.com\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}