The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) has recently acknowledged Henningsen Cold Storage in Richland, Washington, as one of the state’s outstanding warehouses. Henningsen was one of only six companies in the state to be named as such.
L&I’s START Program
L&I selected these six companies as part of its Safety Through Achieving Recognition Together (START) program. START is a Washington state program modeled on a similar program run by the federal government. The program aims at increasing workplace safety through recognizing those companies that have gone above and beyond to ensure their employees remain safe and healthy in the workplace.
While recognizing these companies is a beginning, L&I’s hope is that the START program won’t end there.
The idea is for these companies to share their successes with other companies, including their unique methods of safety. This will hopefully encourage other companies to begin implementing these solutions in their own warehouses and businesses, especially those companies that have had safety issues in the past.
L&I’s Stay at Work Program
Henningsen’s is also a participant in the L&I Stay at Work program. This program, which offers financial incentives to employers, is aimed at getting those who have been injured back to work as soon as possible by offering alternative job duties.
These alternative jobs must be approved by the employee’s physician before they can return to work, and most are very light-duty positions such as clerical or computer work. Employees return to work more quickly and return to earning their full salary, while employers are reimbursed for half of each worker’s base salary and some expenses for as much as 66 days.
More about Henningsen
Henningsen’s Richland facility provides almost five million cubic feet of storage space, all of it temperature controlled. In addition to being one of the largest temperature-controlled warehouses in the state, it’s also one of the largest in the country. Henningsen has been in businesses for nearly a century and operates warehouses in other locations. Five of these other warehouses have also been certified as safe and healthy work environments by START.
The facility in Richland opened in 1982 and is located near two of the largest railroads in the U.S. It offers a number of cutting edge services. The company makes use of many pieces of equipment that would be found in all warehouses, including forklifts, forklift ramps, mobile docking platforms, and more. All of these products and equipment are maintained to exacting standards to minimize injury and replacement costs.
The company’s inventory management system makes use of the latest in technology to provide outstanding accuracy, accountability, and faster distribution. The system also makes storage location a priority, making optimum use of space and keeping internal product moves to a minimum. This helps to improve efficiency and, in the end, means lower costs to all customers. Warehouse transactions are handled by an Electronic Data Interchange system that is web-based. This allows managers to access the system no matter where they are and also provides customers with the ability to quickly see where their products are.
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