Looking for a way to make your warehouse more manageable? Building a guiding system is the most important thing businesses can do to maximize warehouse efficiency.
Without a sufficient guidance system, navigating warehouses and storage centers can feel like getting dropped off in the middle of forest you’ve never been to, then commanded to find your way home. With seemingly endless rows with racks and racks of products—many of which are packed in boxes or tubs with little to no identifying text—finding what you need is impossible without help. An intuitive labeling system makes it easy to maneuver through the necessarily complex, labyrinthine aisles of warehouses and store rooms.
The easiest and best way to create an easy-to-follow navigation system is by using rack labels and signs. These rack labels allow workers to build a system that makes sense, then standardize that system so that workers can use it indefinitely. Of all the ways to improve efficiency and prevent waste like lost time, rack labeling is the best, quickest, and most cost-effective way to manage your inventory storage space.
With advances in technologies, using a barcoding system in manufacturing workplaces or other industrial settings has become hugely popular and simpler than ever. Companies can create custom barcode labels for in that contain the information needed to keep track and organize inventory and manage the warehouse.
Benefits of Rack Labeling:
Locating items becomes a walk in the park.
Once a system is in place, workers need only to look at the rack labels to find the product they need. Without this, workers must resort to pacing through aisles dizzily, reading the print on boxes, or adhering to barcodes.
Rack Labels improve efficiency in inventory management.
The labels make it easier to capture data, which decreases human error and wasted time. Automating data capture allows warehouse operators to have a better understanding of their inventory, which means they can better improve inventory flow and eliminate bottlenecks.
It will take some initial cost and time to implement a new rack labeling system, but it will keep the facility operating smoothly and more efficiently. You will need to decide the material of labels you will want, if you want to color code the system, symbols you may add to the label, whether you want to use barcodes or QR codes, and more. Spend some time talking with employees and sufficiently plan out the system before putting it into place. Be sure to practice consistency and label everything! Visual cues are one of the best ways to avoid confusion.
Additional Resources
- Rack Labeling– creativesafetysupply.com
- Managing Inventory with Rack Labels– blog.creativesafetysupply.com
- Types of Rack Labels– blog.labeltac.com
- Is the LabelTac 9 Printer Right for your Facility?– creativesafetypublishing.com
- The Importance of Labeling– industriallabelprinters.net
- What is a thermal printer?– thermalboss.com
- Getting Started with Asset Tagging– bridge-to-safety.com
- Enhancing Communication in the Workplace With Pipe Markings– warehousepipemarking.com
- What is Kanban?– blog.5stoday.com