Assessing and facilitating warehouse safety

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how warehouse safety can be assessed and facilitated. Methodology: Through a literature study, we build a theoretical framework to provide insights in how safety in Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) can be assessed and facilitated. We perform a case study at a large Dutch LSP using interviews and questionnaires to determine the relevance of the sub-dimensions to assess warehouse safety. Findings: Using literature, we identify people, procedures and technology related sub-dimensions of safety culture and safety behavior and factors that may affect how safety culture translates to safety behavior. Using a case study our findings indicate which sub-dimensions and influencing factors LSP employees find important and why. We found differences in the importance assigned to safety, which may point to the existence of sub-cultures across warehouses. Research limitations/implications: This paper contributes to the limited existing warehouse safety literature in which the factors that influence safety are not well explored. Although the case study investigates one LSP and as such does not generalize across LSPs, it provides valuable insights in important aspects of safety and how they can be influenced. Practical implications: This paper offers safety managers insights in how to assess and facilitate safety within their warehouses. Originality: Although warehouse safety is important, there is scarce academic research that explores this issue.