Manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain facilities form the operational backbone of modern commerce.
Their interconnected warehousing, distribution, logistics, and security operations all play vital roles in the ability to meet new and emerging challenges to loss prevention while ensuring employee and contractor safety across the supply chain.
Hence, it is critical to protect each link in the supply chain from potential threats. This includes reinforcing physical entrance security of vital infrastructure and assets, protecting data facilities from cyber and physical intrusion, coping with rising levels and sophistication of cargo theft. Most importantly, organisations must protect workers from the increased risk of violence that often accompanies criminal activity.
Here are five tips from global entrance security specialist Boon Edam to help secure distribution, logistics, and warehouse facilities:
- Compartmentalise ingress and egress into two separate workflows
Ingress workflow design focuses on providing a safe working environment. To reduce risk and protect employees, assets, and property, facilities must address the following:
- Prevention of unauthorised access by detection or prevention of tailgating and piggybacking
- Line-of-sight restrictions, including physical or environmental obstructions that prevent security cameras, personnel, or sensors from having a clear, unobstructed view of a designated area. These limitations create “blind spots” that can be exploited by intruders to bypass security measures
- Weapons-free workplace, augmented by burglar- and bullet-resistant entrance materials protecting vital areas
- Mobile phone divestment for a safe equipment operations environment
Egress workflow design focuses on preventing loss and shrinkage. Any implementation of screening should be automated for bias elimination and not at the discretion of screeners. Things to address include:
- Establishing line-of-sight in open areas to ensure clear visibility for cameras and analytics capture
- Limiting places at exits to hide products
- Screening options for areas with a high probability of inventory theft
- Measures to keep products from walking out the front door
- Reducing collusion opportunities between employees or other interested parties
- Segmenting work break areas from exits and ingress divestment areas
- Implement secure entrances, working from internal high-value asset and data areas and extending outwards towards the perimeter
Implementing security measures by starting from critical inner areas and extending to the outer perimeter is pragmatic with limited budgets. The ideal process begins with the creation of a layered physical security strategy based on the security level of each area within the facility.
Consider the type of work being done in each location and which employees, visitors, and contractors should be granted access to these areas.
The user experience actually flows in reverse, from the outer perimeter to the internal areas, as follows from:
- Perimeter fencing/gatehouses, employee vehicles, truck/trailer parking lots
- Loading docks, driver access points
- Power supply, communications systems, and waste disposal areas
- Employee/visitor entrances, divestment lockers, and weapons and mobile phone screening
- Work break rooms and employee gathering places
- Employee egress loss prevention screening areas
- High-Value Inventory (HVI), server rooms, and sensitive services areas
- Integrate ingress safety and security with egress loss prevention
Where possible, segment and compartmentalise ingress areas with limited line-of-sight from egress areas with open visibility.
Realistically, in most cases, the two must be blended at the same physical space. In many cases, the automated screening is pushed into the warehouse space prior to proceeding through the ingress and divestment areas.
In some cases, metal detection used to screen for weapons or mobile phones inbound is also utilised for screening of specific inventory or packaging designs outbound.
Integrate life safety goals and the associated brand risk management, with loss prevention dollars and potentially customer retention measures. This provides the best opportunities to broaden appeal for the internal funding stakeholders and create ROI models to obtain the funding for design implementations.
- Add analytics to entrances
The best security entrances can do more than simply read credentials to allow or deny entry to each individual. Using biometric technology, for example, it is possible to verify if the person trying to enter is in fact the same identity as the credentials suggest. This substantially increases the level of security and is ideal for high value inventory and highly regulated facilities, such as data and IP areas.
Additionally, analytics can capture information about user behaviours. For example, analytics can detect if a specific identity repeatedly presents credentials and does not enter, or attempts entry with a second person in the security entrance compartment, a behaviour known as piggybacking. This information can be used to help develop threat and risk-assessment policies and processes to further improve security.
Analytics data can further be used to provide information about the operational condition of the door, evaluate risk levels at the entry, and improve uptime.
- Consult with authorities in entrance security
With so many choices available, making the best selection for each specific area can be challenging.
Seldom is one single solution suitable for multiple challenges, so seek out entrance security authorities offering broad ranges of layered solutions from under the same roof, rather than a one-type-fits all solution.
A well-versed entry solutions specialist can demonstrate an ability to evaluate particular physical environments and assess the right choices in each instance.
This committed long-term experience will help ensure the following benefits:
- High-capacity throughput now, and into the future
- Compliance with the latest Standards, including disabled access
- Creation of a pleasant user experience
- Creation of secure yet stylish first impressions that fit with your brand
- Ensuring safety throughout all shifts
- Enabling rapid technical troubleshooting, for reduced downtime
- Establishing reliable and dependable deployments based on mean cycle before failure – for example, where a software team releases code frequently while maintaining a high average amount of operational uptime between incidents
- Building a partnership with an entry expert, extending from project conception to installation and beyond, into preventative maintenance uptime, with cost-efficient service and maintenance
The process of establishing new ingress and egress policies and processes can be daunting in large distribution, logistics, and warehouse facilities. Boon Edam has successfully deployed thousands of secured entry solutions in these applications, building on its experience of more than 150 years in quality engineering.
Boon Edam secured entry professionals can assist through every phase of the process, helping at the outset to document ROI and business outcomes, including risk management and benefits vital to obtaining funding from within the organisation involved.
About Royal Boon Edam
With work environments becoming increasingly global and dynamic, smart, safe entry has become the centre of activity in and around many buildings. Royal Boon Edam is a global market leader in reliable entry solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, with 150 years of experience in engineering quality, we have gained extensive expertise in managing the transit of people through office buildings, airports, healthcare facilities, hotels, and many other types of buildings. We are focussed on providing an optimal, sustainable experience for our clients and their clients. By working together with you, our client, we help determine the exact requirements for the entry point in and around your building.
You can find more news about Boon Edam on www.boonedam.com.au/news
