What Is The Need Of Smart Surveillance Solutions In Warehouses?

When it comes to establishing a secure warehousing facility, Warehouse Smart Surveillance Solutions that synchronize operations while constructing a security net around the premises always prove to be a better choice than a manually orchestrated one. While security guards are an important part of the surveillance structure, one cannot entrust all responsibilities over to them. A warehouse surveillance solution that integrates error-free and secure operations with manual supervisory assistance creates the environment for optimized working conditions.

Let us dive into some basic issues faced by warehousing facilities and some ways to optimize their operations with video surveillance solutions.

Factors contributing to the need for a Warehouse Smart Surveillance Solutions

1. Risk of Intrusion and vandalism

Warehouses are storage spaces for products going through transit, being settled here before getting shipped off to another location, possibly their scheduled destination. These units, storing commodities of all economical ranges and employing expensive machinery and equipment to facilitate with the maintenance become recurring targets for intruders that enter these facilities with the aim of robbing equipment or simply causing distress and loss to the owner by vandalizing their property.

2. Shrinkage and Pilferage

Ineffective Inventory management and product movement across the warehousing facility can sometimes lead to incorrect outgoing inventory, imbalanced inbound and outbound reports. Added to this is the loss of inventory due to internal theft by employees or displacement of products into the incorrect isles, leading to loss of assets and requires a better regulating solution to be put in place.

3. Sexual Harassment

Cases of sexual harassment at work places often go unnotified, with no proof to back the claim causing immeasurable distress to the victim. Every organization requires a well structured anti harassment plan which can provide timely relief and justice while ensuring that these types of occurrences do not taint the organization’s reputation. The proper placement of CCTV cameras in clear sight can deter these types of crimes while also providing video evidence in case such a situation arises.

4. Delayed operations

Employees working in warehousing facilities are expected to be on edge, ensuring timely movement of products across the warehouse, facilitating their punctual outbound and further transit. Delayed operations and increased lag time due to employee inefficiency or machine downtime need to be monitored, keeping employer in loop for everything taking place in the premises.

5. Injuries and Accidents

Injuries suffered by employees in warehousing premises is a rather common site, adding the non-compliance to safety protocols to be followed during operational processes and an incompetent surveillance mechanism (employment of human guards) to it can lead to major accidents in warehouses.

6. Employee inactivity

Consistent surveillance of premises is a basic requirement of any place for the regulation of employee activity, management of their performance and keeping log of their productivity. In larger organizations with multiple warehouses established across geographical locations, manual guarding causes too much hassle without allowing simultaneous monitoring of employee performance.

7. System downtime

Machinery and equipment break down can greatly affect the overall productivity of an organization, delaying operations and stagnating efficiency. To be able to keep up with machinery health updates with manual supervision might lead you to believe that a well employed surveillance staff is enough to keep up with the demands of the facility. Contrary to this belief, over investment in the surveillance staff over a complete structure with proactive facilities, might lead to greater costs incurred at the cost of insufficient benefits.

8. Unregulated temperature

Warehousing facilities storing perishables and reactive commodities need to maintain the right temperature and humidity levels of certain storage areas while regulating the air quality of the premises. Manually checking the conditions of the units after every few hours can still lead to delay in reading the requirements of the room, causing spoilage. This type of loss can be avoided by employing surveillance solutions that keep consistent check on the environmental conditions inside the units.

8 tips to improve your Warehouse Smart Surveillance Solutions

1. Turning existing CCTV system smart

Most warehousing facilities have a basic security structure installed across their premises. With this assumption in mind, one has to think of ways to improve the overall security without completely discarding the old setup. With the evolution in technology, upgrading your existing system without investing in the complete hardware is possible.

2. Integrate perimeter intrusion sensors

Surveillance solutions can support multiple devices, including cameras and sensors. To protect the facility from any external damage or intrusion; a set of perimeter intrusion sensors can be installed to build a security net across the boundaries of the premises. Any undesired entry into the premises gets recorded from there on, notifying security personnel regarding the same.

3. Employ glass break sensors for ground level windows

A glass break sensor as part of warehouse surveillance solutions, monitor any noise or vibrations being recorded from the glass, these unwanted occurrences raising an alert once they exceed the threshold. These sensors become especially important for large warehouse structures with ground level windows.

4. Regulate the entry and exit points

For warehouses spread over larger areas, monitoring all the entry and exit points manually may not be enough to regulate who enters and exits the premises and at what time. Installing motion detection sensors along with cameras at every access point of the station can benefit the organization in maintaining surveillance. For warehouses located in remote areas, constant surveillance becomes even more crucial.

5. Maintain clear separation between loading and unloading docks

The loading and unloading sites bring a lot of traffic, so its best that these sites are located away from one another. Tracking movement of goods across the site can be done using RFID and bar tags, being scanned at every change of location.  Unloading and loading these shipments can be dangerous to administer manually. With the current technological growth being experienced globally, a basic mechanism to officiate the movement of goods and commodities can be easily installed.

6. No need to manual data records

Now is the age of mobile data, which goes where you go without having to carry any additional weight. The RFID scanners, being applied at the receiving docks are backed by computers, automatically storing the data, identifying the product and its rightful place within seconds. When monitoring the movement of goods can be orchestrated with a cloud-based automated surveillance solution, keeping manual data entries can be time-consuming and open to errors.

7. Integrate environmental control into the surveillance solution

The right environmental monitoring system can help in the secure storage and movement of sensitive items inside the premises. While keeping a check on the temperature levels of the storage units with scheduled manual surveillance can help, surveillance solutions equipped with temperature and humidity sensors that can send real-time notifications to authorized users in case of any environmental deviations.

8. Communicate emergency response plan to all employees

Every organization must ensure that their employees have clear instructions about the protocols to be followed in case of an emergency. Proper knowledge about the placement of fire extinguishers, the fire exits to use while exiting the premises as well as the whole accounting procedure must be communicated to the employees time and again.

Video surveillance solutions have mapped out an ideal mechanism to construct an environment of unified operations, automating routine tasks and providing users with an insight into their valuable business operations; while taking on the responsibility of turning the premises into a secure station for goods as well as people.

Looking for an expert to help you with your security and surveillance needs, get in touch with IGZY today.