Introduction

Dixieline Lumber supplies lumber, windows, doors, tools, and other building products throughout Southern California. It is owned by Builders FirstSource, the largest supplier of building products in the US.

Dixieline operates an part-indoor, part-outdoor lumber & home store in Solana Beach, California. Retail associates are frequently lifting heavy lumber products and home-building materials, like 2x4s and 4x4s. At the busy store, customers were sometimes lifting heavy objects themselves, creating a potential problem of injury liability. Dixieline began using Voxel to gain greater insight into risks to customers and associates in its retail environment.

80% Drop in Ergonomics Incidents

The Solana Beach store achieved a 79% decrease in ergonomics incidents over six months. In September 2022, the site experienced an average of 26 'over reaching' incidents per day. By February 2023, the average 'over reaching' incidents had declined to only 8 per day.

In September 2022, the site experienced an average of 20 'improper bending' incidents per day. By February 2023, the site experienced only one bad bending incident per day.

‍‍Retail stores are unique environments for AI because there are separate rulesets for customers and associates. At Solana Beach, the AI was told to distinguish staff based on their clothing: it understood that anybody wearing a safety vest, a Dixieline uniform, or a high-visibility orange or neon shirt should be considered an employee. 

Employees at the retail store are exposed to significant ergonomic risks. Associates are frequently bending over to pick up large bags of concrete or mulch. When a ladder isn’t readily available, associates sometimes ‘over reach’ to get heavy items from racks in the store’s outdoor drive-through supply area. 

Another common ‘over reaching’ risk occurred when associates lifted heavy lumber products above their heads. These kinds of incidents can be avoided by lifting as a team, and the Solana Beach store made an effort to train all associates to do team lifts when lifting certain large products.

Ergonomic risks also affected customers. In the section of the store dedicated to brick and concrete products, there wasn’t enough personnel to service the large volume of customers. As a result, when an employee was lifting a heavy object, well-intentioned customers would try to help out. These customers are not necessarily trained on proper lifting practices, and are putting themselves at risk of injury. Customers could get seriously hurt, and may also expose the store to general liability claims.

When Solana Beach leadership observed a high number of improper bending incidents by the brick and concrete products, they sent more store personnel to help out, to ensure that customers don’t get involved.

86% Drop in Vehicle Safety Incidents

The Dixieline store is a bustling location where forklifts and trucks from the local building industry are frequently loading and unloading heavy objects. The Solana Beach leadership wanted greater visibility into vehicle safety at the store, so they monitored ‘parking duration’ periods, to see if company forklifts were staying parked near customer vehicles, and ‘no stop at intersection’ events, to prevent vehicle collisions at the site. 

Insight from vehicle incident data helped the site leadership quickly coach their team on proper vehicle safety habits. Voxel’s customer success team also made recommendations for how to modify the store's work process to improve vehicle safety, such as designating specific parking spots for forklifts, so that they don’t end up parked near customer vehicles. Through these simple coaching and process interventions, the site reduced dangerous vehicle behaviors by nearly 90% in six months.