By Steve Stephenson, Graphic Products, Inc., www.DuraLabel.com
Excerpt from
FSM Magazine
For the more than 145,000 people who work in the 7,000+ warehouses across the United States, warehouses may be hazardous – but visual communications can play an important role generating greater awareness of these dangers.
Warehouses are often crowded with inventory stacked high on pallets and forklift trucks and foot traffic coming and going. When warehouses are disorganized, profitability suffers, which should be a huge concern. Often, placement of a few key signs can help.
Lisa Van Straten, Vice President of Human
Resources and Safety for WOW Logistics stated, “At WOW Logistics, warehousing is our business, but safety is our priority.
In our hectic fast-paced world, it is easy to take short cuts to get a job done faster. We communicate to all our employees on a daily basis the importance that safety plays in creating a true efficient and effective operation for our clients. We train our employees to ‘think safety’ whether they are on a forklift, picking an order, or simply cleaning up.”
Careful consideration should be given to signs and labels in industrial environments as they may be exposed to harsh weather, chemical spills and forklift traffic.
Vinyl supplies are resistant to most environmental conditions, but in some cases specialized materials may be needed to attain optimum label performance. Innovative sign and label materials have been developed to make labeling faster and easier. One such solution is floor marking tape which is costeffective, highly visible and withstands the abuse of warehouse traffic.
Warehouse floor marking creates better organization and safety on the inventory floor by clearly indicating where inventory should be stored, which aisles and pathways to keep clear and directing traffic flow.
When people, vehicles and goods flow in an orderly fashion, profits are optimized.
But all floor marking tape is not created equal. Forklift trucks destroy inferior tape. For heavy duty facility traffic,
DuraLabel has introduced a family of floor marking supplies that will take daily punishment from vehicles, enhancing safety communications and directing foot traffic.
Floor marking or floor striping is used to define loading and unloading areas for inventory, safety and hazard zones, wayfinding or directional communications.
Despite the name, floor marking is not limited to floors. Floor marking supplies line hand rails and step landings and outline doorways.
One indispensable tool for warehouse managers is a thermal transfer printer. With a thermal transfer printer, you can print signs and labels on polyesters, polyimides, reflective films and vinyls which are all resistant to chemicals, water, abrasion and UV. Where safety is critical, thermal printers produce labels with crisp, clear text and images – improving the clarity and readability of the label.
The DuraLabel Toro thermal transfer printer is one of the first totally stand-alone industrial label printers with a built-in keyboard and touch screen. With free label creation software, OSHA-compliant templates and an extensive symbol library,
Toro makes code compliance easy. Toro can run on battery power which means you can work outdoors or anywhere an outlet isn’t accessible.
Inadequate fire safety provisions, improper use of lockout procedures and failure to wear personal protective equipment also create hazards in the warehouse environment. Discouraged? Don’t be.
Follow these guidelines and suggestions and you can create a safer warehouse culture.
Steve Stephenson is a managing partner at Graphic
Products, Inc., Portland, Ore. Contact him at sstephenson@graphicproducts.com and (800) 788-5572.
For more information, visit www.DuraLabel.com.
FSM | April 2012
Excerp t from FSM Magazine