Graham Swallow of Axis Communications looks at how technology can better monitor and protect retail distribution centres by improving access control at the perimeter and on site.
Today’s retail and manufacturer distribution centres are often large, busy environments with many operatives carrying out a variety of tasks with quick turnaround times to meet customer demand. The safety of staff is paramount, and at the same time, security is also an increasing concern. Criminals are becoming ever more determined to attack freight, premises and IT networks, requiring an increasingly sophisticated approach to security.
This is where considerations turn to technology. Security systems, comprising essential access control measures, will play an important part and offer many benefits. They will ensure not only high levels of protection, but also monitor operations to safeguard the working environment. No longer simply about manned stations or the use of dated legacy technologies, today’s modern solutions utilise digital connectivity and the internet of things (IoT) so that the integration of access control, surveillance cameras, audio speakers and modern, affordable radar systems form part of a comprehensive, overarching solution.
Monitoring for safety and improving operations
Working in an environment where there are fast moving goods brings about a need for strong, safe and efficient working practices. Here technology can facilitate real time alerts and interventions designed to change behaviour and capture data to manage rules and policies. Whether picking and preparing orders for store delivery, loading or unloading goods, a network video system with analytics can provide greater visibility of staff movements to ensure they are in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing.
Automating barriers with number plate recognition capabilities at the site entrance gates, enabled by network cameras and integrated with an access database, can provide a fast lane entry for an organisation’s own fleet or frequent visitors. This can be linked with visitor management to enable health and safety briefings before arrival and to log acceptance. Adding modern radar to this area will monitor where pedestrians stray into vehicle lanes, identifying the human or vehicle difference and issuing an audio and visual warning. This all-encompassing solution serves to streamline operations while delivering a consistent output, removing cost and unnecessary risk to human presence within potentially dangerous areas. Better insights for operations and management teams can result in better situational awareness and dramatically improve due diligence to reduce health and safety risks in such fast-paced environments.
Improving security at the perimeter
In addition to staff safety and smoother operation, the protection of goods, machinery and people is critical within any retail distribution environment. Considerations start at the perimeter of a site where the introduction of radar technology can provide security personnel with accurate information about the number of people or vehicles in an area and can also calculate speed of approach and keep a record of where they have been on site. Due attention can also be given to those who might be approaching the perimeter from the inside too; for example, a staff member attempting to pass goods from the building over the fence.
If the perimeter is breached, it’s important for security and operations teams to very quickly track the movements of anyone who has unlawfully entered the site, to be able to guarantee that goods have not been moved or tampered with. Access control mechanisms, together with video surveillance can help to track movement around a building, with IP audio speakers also configured to issue alerts and pre-recorded messaging to deter criminal activity or correct unacceptable behaviour.
Intelligent access for a smarter, safer world
IP based access control technologies allow an accurate record to be kept of who is entering and leaving the site. The addition of frictionless technologies removes the need to touch shared surfaces by introducing QR codes on a mobile device or facial recognition, rather than the use of keypads. This is of particular relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic and adding a face mask detection analytic to the camera edge can become part of your compliance process.
An intelligent video management system, unified with access control, also has benefits of removing the human error factor that can so often compromise a business’s efforts to maintain high levels of security. As an example, a fire door which has been propped open will trigger an alert from IP audio speakers, reminding staff that the door is for emergency use only. This closes off a possible entrance for a potential criminal. Of course, better security and improved access control is not about technology in isolation, but having the right tools alongside the right attitudes of staff and management, so that the system becomes part of a combined effort to secure and protect people, premises and property.
Many retailers are now even setting up their own monitoring centre to process security situations and emergencies and with the right information they can take the safest necessary actions. Working in close collaboration with the trusted providers of high quality security solutions, such as Axis Communications, retail distribution businesses can take full control of their security provision, maximising the benefits of smarter access control in combination with other technologies to more effectively secure and protect.