Thefts, losses, shortages, and other shortcomings in warehouses are usually not disclosed outside the enterprise. This could testify to improper work organization, which would negatively affect the company’s reputation among market contractors. However, this does not mean that the problem does not exist, as evidenced by increasingly frequent publications on this topic in professional journals. The authors of these publications analyze in greater detail the procedures aimed at limiting theft and losses in warehouses. Among other things, they draw attention to the appropriate selection of employees and certain forms of technical security and methods of controlling warehouse turnover. However, they omit many important issues resulting from applicable legal regulations regarding financial liability, as well as significant technical and organizational factors related to property security.
The warehouse property security system contains an interconnection of technical and organizational factors. When designing such a system, one must always consider various types of threats that may occur under the conditions of a specific warehouse facility, including: threats of burglary, employee theft, robbery, vandalism, sabotage, etc.
Proper security of warehouse property depends on ensuring the implementation of basic technical and organizational factors. Basic technical factors include:
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appropriate warehouse buildings and rooms, adapted to the physicochemical properties of the stock and health, safety, and fire protection requirements, storage conditions, as well as the proper technological warehouse process
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mechanical security
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electronic security.
Organizational factors include:
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development and application of internal regulations in the form of a warehouse manual, in which one of the chapters should be devoted to securing warehouses against theft and other abuses
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ensuring proper physical protection by signing an appropriate contract for security services, within which this service conducts ongoing control of the entry and exit of warehouse employees and unauthorized persons, as well as the entry and exit of motor vehicles from the warehouse area
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hiring warehouse personnel with appropriate qualifications and the personality required for a position involving financial liability, and applying legal regulations on financial liability related to entrusted property
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applying appropriate principles for conducting inventory, settling its results, accounting for natural losses, and verifying discrepancies.
Full security of stored stock can be guaranteed if the above-mentioned basic factors are met. Of course, their importance and impact on this security vary.
Mechanical security of warehouse buildings
Mechanical security is primarily implemented by installing grilles, locks, etc., in the openings of warehouse rooms. Although it is obvious to use such security measures in warehouses, they are not always of adequate quality. This mainly concerns the installation of locks that do not always have the appropriate class of attestations and certificates.
Mechanical security also includes structural partitions in rooms, such as walls, ceilings, various types of gate structures, etc. Such security measures most often determine the time a potential intruder needs to break into the warehouse and the type of specialized equipment they must use to force the mechanical security.
A form of mechanical security is also the creation of special, separated rooms or safes for storing valuable materials and goods, over which rigorous supervision must be ensured.
One of the most modern systems of mechanical security for warehouse buildings and rooms is the introduction of a so-called “key duplication” system. In practice, there is still a lack of full awareness regarding the requirements for key duplication and the role that a so-called “master key,” giving access to all rooms, including mainly warehouse ones, can play in an enterprise. The importance of the practical functioning of this system is felt in the event of a building fire and for the course of rescue operations (quick opening of all rooms threatened by fire is ensured). The implementation of this type of system is handled, among others, by a security equipment company led by Daniel Barszcz, founder and first President of the Polish Association of Licensed Key Services. This company offers, among other things, an access control system and opening technology.
This issue is also regulated by the Polish Standard PN-B-84461-02 regarding “security and reproducibility of keys.” This standard recommends that keys for the associated cylinder (lock) be reproduced only by the manufacturer or a licensed service. This requirement is mandatory for “C” class products (the highest product class in terms of security). In practice, however, this requirement is not followed by lock manufacturers, as evidenced by the fact that about 80% of “C” class products do not have restricted key duplication or only simulate such a state of the lock cylinder. Such unreliable information causes a threat, as the customer is confident in the protection of the key, while in the meantime, there is a possibility of them being copied by an interested criminal in various unlicensed service workshops.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2011.