In the hunt for continuous improvement, ASG Services strongly recommend you consider color as part of your identification system, because it’s easily recognizable by the human eye. Implementing a color-coded system in your facility can provide a host of benefits to your employees, at every stage of your operations. Read further to discover just a few benefits this type of system can bring.
The most obvious benefit of color-coded warehouse rack labels is that they can make level identification easier and quicker to determine. Learning and adapting to the system will be easy for employees, because the human brain quickly associates colors and objects when a pattern is observed, so consistent positioning on the rack is also important. Conversely, when an incongruity is observed, such as a blue tomato, the brain immediately forces the individual to resolve the error.
In fact, you probably already make use of color in your facility to one degree or another. Red warehouse floor striping can designate areas that must remain free of obstructions, possibly because the area is an emergency exit, or fire extinguishers are placed there, and other emergency response aids. Similarly, yellow is often used to designate a step up, staircases, and low-hanging overheads. These colors are used because society has programmed us to understand that these colors mean caution. Other colors can be assigned meaning in your facility in a similar way, ultimately to ensure everything finds its proper place and will work with a 5s implementation if you are considering this for your organization.
A modern method of color use in a warehouse is to designate the use for items. For instance, storage bins used for receiving might be blue, while racks assigned to a specific customer might be painted in their brand color(s). Similarly, maintenance and cleaning equipment may be differentiated by color to help prevent contamination or incorrect use. This type of system makes it easier to identify by zones for customers, departments, production stages or other classifications within a storage environment. Storage areas or zones could be separated by aisle sign and line striping color, separating bulk storage from staging areas, or receiving lanes from rework areas, etc. Custom aisle signs or marker boards are a remarkably cost-effective product and have a simple yet significant effect in the work place.
Color-coded storage bins and color-coded LPN pallet labels can make it easier to manage the finished products and goods stored in your warehouse, by helping employees keep items of the same type or finished state together. For instance, if your facility produces beverages, each pallet of IPA might receive a yellow LPN label, letting the warehouse personnel know that the pallet must be stored in the IPA aisles or red for wines. The color may also be reflective of a production date for product life cycle. This makes it easier for inventory control personnel to maintain quick and accurate counts and for forklift operators to easily distinguish the pallets they need for shipment orders.
By designating a specific color to locations in a pallet rack face, employees will determine more quickly, which pallet out of 100 or one sitting high above their head is needed to fulfill their next pick. For instance, by going to an aisle, the operator then finds the correct bay. Once there, the levels may be 5 plus high. If only a black on white rack label identifies each level, it becomes more difficult for a person to see and keep track while selecting and retrieve the correct pallet each time. However, when color is added, it is a far quicker recognition process. Your employees will be able to see the level and concentrate on lifting that pallet more carefully. In addition, adding a multi-level rack label with corresponding data and colors at operator level, will dramatically improve pick accuracy.
While you’ll still rely on barcode identification tags to designate specific locations in your warehouse or a generic line striping color throughout, combining these with a color-coded system can help your operation run more efficiently. The human brain can easily learn to associate colors with meaning and with specific objects, which is why color has already been used throughout history to highlight everything from dangers to corporate brands. By incorporating a color-coded system in your warehouse design, employees will be able to identify destinations, pallets and products more quickly, which will help them perform their duties more efficiently.
Contact ASG Services to find how their custom capabilities can help you achieve a color orientated solution for your facility. Their warehouse sign, label and line striping solutions are market leading in durability and performance, while their installation services are used as the benchmark. Call +1 (877) 447-9798 or email info@asgservices.com and start your color coding initiative.
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