/ By Gateway Team / access control equipment • biometric security • key pads • warehouse security/ 0 Comments

Protect high-value goods with access control equipment

protect high-value goods with access control equipmentEvery delivery of cargo to your warehouse represents value, but some more than others. The loss of expensive equipment, electronics, pharmaceuticals or other items could seriously undermine your business, disrupt relations with suppliers and customers and gravely harm your bottom line. This is why it is incredibly important that your business acts to ensure that your warehouse has rigorous security protocols in place to prevent such a disaster from happening.

Best practices for warehouse security and the role of access control equipment

Security at warehouses is paramount. Your systems need to be complex and detailed in order to offer protection to your goods, both during operations and afterwards. From basic practices like ensuring your employees are properly vetted, uniformed and badged and signed in to the building, to locking off access to high-value goods with access control equipment – your plan needs to be comprehensive.

It is important to properly vet your staff. It can be tempting to relax these types of practices at busy times of the year, such as seasonal spikes, but this is a short-sighted approach that can cost you dearly. Access control equipment can not only protect goods from unauthorised hands, it can also help to monitor which staff are in the building at any given time – helpful in identifying a culprit should stock disappear.

By using cages with a keypad or fingerprint biometric access control system you can secure high-value goods and restrict access to only approved persons. Without this kind of protection in place then anyone could gain access and potentially exploit those materials.

Mirrors and cameras should be installed around the building making it difficult for employees, tradespeople or other visitors to conceal stolen goods. Proper and effective monitoring is a key way to stop opportunistic theft. However, CCTV should not be relied on solely as It only records a crime happening, it does not always prevent it.

Physical keys should be replaced in lieu of electronic methods of access. Physical keys can be easily copied or can find their way into criminal hands which could put your entire business operation at risk, with thieves easily gaining access to goods, documents and other assets undisturbed. A building, room or cage that is only accessible by biometric finger print (entirely unique to the individual) or a keypad with a code that can be changed is a much more reliable form of security.

Gateway Automation can provide free, no obligation quotes and feasibility surveys for your premises. To get us to assess your security requirements, please contact us.

/ By Gateway Team / biometric fingerprint scanners • biometric identification systems • fingerprinter readers • key pads • security • warehouse security/ 0 Comments

Reduce employee theft in warehouses

clip_image002Internet shopping giant Amazon hit the headlines recently after resorting to putting up flat screen TV’s in their warehouses which showed stories of alleged former employees who had been ‘terminated’ or ‘arrested’ for stealing company stock.

While this is an extreme method of deterring employees from stealing from you, it is understandable that Amazon aimed to put protections in place considering how much of their stock has a resale value.

However, there are other ways to show your employees that you mean business that have less of a chance of damaging company morale and creating a public relations storm.

Mirrors & cameras
First of all, mirrors can be installed in strategic areas of your warehouse that highlight any hard-to-see areas where employees may be able to conceal items away from your cameras or the sight of other employees. Your employees are less likely to try and commit opportunistic crime if their actions are highly visible through a combination of mirrors and cameras.

Create secure areas
For particularly high value items it is important to put systems in place so that employees are unable to easily gain access to them. Security does not end simply with perimeter protection and you need to make sure that items of high value are given full protection. This could be achieved by enforcing a two-person rule where no-one is ever allowed to access specific items by themselves, or by securing a room or cage with a keypad or finger print biometric access control system.

Limit the number of keys
While it’s important to lock up your building at night, keys are not as secure as they might first appear. Physical keys are easily copied which means that if a key is lost or falls into the wrong hands then it could put your entire warehouse and stock at jeopardy. Instead you should limit physical keys only to specific high clearance members of staff and provide key fobs for other staff which can be deactivated if they part ways with your company.

Outside of these three key areas you should also ensure that checks are done on new employees to make sure that they are fit to work for your company and don’t have shady details in their past. You may not need to enforce a DBS check even just calling previous employers can help.

Gateway Automation can provide free, no obligation quotes and feasibility surveys for your premises. To get us to assess your security requirements, please contact us