At Prairie State, personal protective equipment (PPE) vending machines are in use at both the power plant and mine. Our vending machines are important to employee safety because they offer convenient and easy access to PPE and other high turning inventory. Our vendors take care of stocking the machines on a weekly basis.
At the mine, PPE vending machines are located in the staging area for convenience. At the power plant, there are three PPE vending machines: one in the administrative building cafeteria, one in the fuels office, and one in the control room.
Using these machines across campus provides insightful reports; these reports allow the buyers to monitor what is being used so the items can be rotated or restocked as needed. Our vendors take care of stocking the machines on a weekly basis.
Before adding the machines, large quantities of PPE were requested from the warehouse and stocked in numerous locations across the power plant. This led to a great amount of inventory that was lost or disposed of. Now that the items are in a convenient location, storing PPE around the site is not necessary, which has greatly cut back on wasted inventory and unnecessary cost.
Finally, these vending machines provide quicker access, which has resulted in a lower wait time at the warehouse. In the past, workers might have bypassed the proper safety gear to avoid a trip to the warehouse. By having these items in a convenient location, it not only increases work efficiency, but also encourages employees to work in a safer manner.
In ever changing working conditions, performing each task safely is vital. We are excited to have the PPE vending machines available for use across the campus as a helpful tool to increase worker safety and efficiency.