The exhaustive work conducted by lift truck manufacturers and support services in the quest to make the material handling industry safer are being recognised at this year’s Design4Safety awards.
The awards, organised by the British Industrial Truck Association, highlight the importance of product or service design in improving safety standards. Focusing specifically on design, the awards recognise and celebrate innovative thinking – regardless of the type or cost of the product or service.
The awards will be announced during IMHX 2019, which takes place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham between 24-27th September.
As well as offering the opportunity to highlight the crucial safety benefits of their individual products or services, the companies shortlisted will benefit from strong brand exposure before, during and after the event.
There are seven different categories in the competition, which together encompass every area of the materials handling industry. These are:
- Automation & Robotics
- Industrial Vehicles
- Industrial Vehicles & Ancillary Products
- Racking & Storage
- Technology
- Training & Operations
- Warehouse Infrastructure
BITA Secretary General James Clark said: “Improving safety within the material handling industry has been – and remains – a strong priority for BITA. Only this year we have had the inaugural UK National Forklift Safety Day, which was organised to great acclaim and is helping to spread the positive message on the importance of good safety.
“Our Design4Safety Awards are a logical extension to this and the standard of entries this year suggests that manufacturers are taking seriously the goal of raising safety standards to the highest level.”
IMHX Event Director Rob Fisher added: “IMHX 2016 was a very successful event with more than 16,000 people visiting the NEC. The industry has changed a lot during the past three years but the focus on improving safety remains a constant and this is why we are delighted once again to be hosting the Design4Safety Awards.”
Winning entries will be selected based on the strongest evidence of a measurable contribution to the level of safety awareness, or rate of incident reduction, achieved by the design.
The judging panel for Design4Safety is:
- David Goss, BITA (Chair)
- John Munnelly, John Lewis
- Kirsty Adams, SHD Logistics
- Clare Bottle, Coca-Cola Enterprises
- Peter Ward, UKWA
- Dave Berridge, AMHSA
- Steve Simmons-Jacobs, HSE
The shortlist for Design4Safety 2019 is as follows:
