AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
BY KATIE FORSYTHE
In warehouse operations, properly labeled racks and items can play a critical role in efficiency and accuracy. Labels designed with a standardarized system in place can significantly enhance inventory management, streamline workflows, and reduce errors. This guide explores best practices for designing warehouse labels to meet operational needs while ensuring clarity and durability.
As a fast-paced environment with heavy machinery, a warehouse needs universal and easy-to-understand labels and instructions. Here are a couple of reasons why your customer's labeling system and designs matter in a warehouse space.
Accurate labels enable warehouse staff to quickly identify items, locations, and instructions. This reduces the time spent searching for products and increases the speed of picking, packing, and shipping tasks. Standardizing label designs also allows for smoother and faster order processing.
By having an easy-to-identify labeling system, your customers can prevent errors when picking, packing, and shipping items. This process helps enhance quality control processes and ensure their customers get the right products. Accurate and easy-to-read labels can also contribute to precise inventory management.
Safety is a primary concern in most warehouse spaces. By complying with a uniform labeling system, machine technicians and other warehouse workers can identify and prevent potential hazards, reducing the risks of accidents and injuries. Labels that include clear handling instructions can also prevent damage to inventory or merchandise.
Labeling in the warehouse can increase automation within the company’s processes. For example, RFID and barcode labels can speed up inventory updates, sorting, and shipping. When these labels are accurate and easy to scan and read, warehouse technicians can streamline their work.
Properly designed labels can show which items have been certified by regulatory entities such as OSHA. This can be especially important in warehouses that handle chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages. Labeling for standardized compliance also helps ensure the traceability of products through the supply chain.
An essential step of designing a warehouse label is considering its materials. Labels can vary depending on the warehouse, but the key considerations include durability, visibility, and placement location.
Durability- Warehouses not only have heavy machinery and equipment, but are also sometimes the homes to chemical storage and other corrosive liquids that can cause wear and tear on your customers' labels. Other factors can include the possibility of extreme hot or cold temperatures in these spaces. Labeling in these circumstances can require tougher materials, such as film instead of paper, and durable adhesives.
Visibility- Since labels in a warehouse are essential for both organization and safety, high visibility is key. Using retroreflective materials ensure your customer's labels can be seen. Retroreflectivity also allows for long range scanning.
Placement of Label- Your customers label materials can vary just based on placement. For instance, metal racks that need to be updated regularly may benefit from magnetic labels to easily change without scraping or leaving sticky label residue. CleanBeam rack covers are another valuable tool to help make it easy to re-label warehouse racks. Floor labels, as another example, may need a protective surface like Label Armor to minimize scuffing and lengthen shelf life.
Color coding in warehouse labeling is important for visibility, organization, and overall efficiency. By color coding your rack labels, each location is associated with a specific color, making it quicker for workers and forklift drivers to find the correct spot. They just scan the barcode on the first crossbeam and use the color code to place or pick products in the right location.
Specific color codes can vary depending on the industry or company preferences, but the common goal is make the labels more visible. For example, bright colors such as yellows or reds can help a label stand out.
Warehouse racks, in particular, can be labeled with a variety of information. Though every warehouse may have a different numbering system, these labels will all typically include details about location. For instance, some companies organize their warehouses by area, aisle, bay, level, etc and they assign a number for each category. Each number or letter for the categories will be in a line and then get separated by dashes.
An example of a location label where the format is Area F- Aisle 1– Bay 1– Level 4– Position A might look like this: "F-01-01-4-A". With a just quick glance, these labels can indicate what product or inventory is located on the racks for easy searchability.
In addition to how your customer's labels are numbered, the system by which their warehouse racks are labeled is essential for organization. Warehouse racks come in all shapes and sizes, and subsequently, so do their labeling systems. Depending on the warehouse’s needs and layout, your customer’s labeling method can typically fall under one of two types of rack labeling systems: Standard and Serpentine. The label design may differ based on which layout your customer uses.
Standard rack labeling design organizes the products or inventory in a parallel structure. This means the label numbering system at the end of the rack will continue again in chronological order on the other end of the next rack. Because of its straightforward design system, standard rack labeling is easy to follow and can be highly beneficial in fastpaced warehouses.
The numbering system in Serpentine rack labeling will pick up on the shelf closest to where the last ended. Similar to stacks in a library, this system gets its name from the labels winding around the racks in a snake-like shape. Serpentine rack labeling helps save time and creates more efficient processes in a warehouse.
From upgrading warehouse signs and labels to developing complex, innovative solutions, our DLSwarehouse team has the design and production expertise to handle all your client’s warehouse concerns. Our experts provide a thorough understanding of warehouse operations, barcode scanning, and label production, and view each installation as a custom project. Reach out to see how we can guide you through the label design and installation processes.
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