Custom floor tape and signs can help communicate specific health and safety messages tailored to the needs of your manufacturing facility. While preprinted facility safety products provide helpful visual cues for common applications, sometimes they don’t meet specific messaging or process needs. In these instances, supplement standardized designs with a mix of custom floor-marking tape and signs that adequately communicate your intended message.
Customized Floor Marking Ideas for Manufacturing Facilities
Preprinted floor-marking methods may fall short when it comes to meeting the unique needs of your manufacturing facility. Consider these common areas where custom floor marking tape or signs may be the best options for communicating health and safety messages in manufacturing facilities and factory environments.
Provide Guidance for Handling Hazardous Chemicals
Hazardous chemicals may be present in manufacturing or production facilities, especially those that handle sensitive materials, food, or pharmaceuticals. While OSHA requires standardized, GHS-compliant labels for hazardous materials in primary and secondary containers, you may want to supplement these labels with custom signage to increase employee awareness and safety. Use custom tape to label organization of hazardous chemical containers, or to alert employees that they are entering areas in which these materials may be present or handled.
Clarify PPE and Protective Clothing Requirements
We offer standard, preprinted floor tape and signage indicating the need for personal protective equipment (PPE), but there are instances where customization may be warranted to provide more specific guidance. Use custom repeating message floor tape to indicate areas in which specific PPE is required, including spaces where steel-toed boots, special face coverings, and other careful considerations may be integral to an employee’s safety. Or, create custom signs to provide other apparel guidelines, such as that loose-fitting clothing or jewelry are prohibited.
Minimize Clutter and Improve 5S Organization for Safety
Clutter can create trip hazards or allow for pests to gather, creating health and hygiene concerns in your manufacturing facility. If your 5S audit indicates a need to address these problems through better organization, custom tape can help you reach those objectives by providing messaging tailored to your exact specifications and needs.
Provide Messaging About Temporary Changes to Workflows
Heavy-duty Superior Mark tape and signs can be customized to communicate clarifying messages related to temporary changes to workflows or processes. Made with our proprietary material, these products are easy to apply with minimal prep, and easy to remove without leaving a residue, making them an ideal temporary solution.
Identify Keep Clear or Restricted Areas
Areas in front of first aid kits, emergency exits, and eyewash stations must be kept clear in any industrial facility, but additional clearance areas can supplement OSHA-required machine guards¹ to improve employee safety around manufacturing equipment. Use custom floor tape and signs to clearly set visual boundaries for these spaces where unauthorized employees, equipment, or clothing is prohibited. You can also customize signs or tape to specify that individuals should stay out of defined areas when equipment is in operation, or to remind employees how to prevent crush- or pinch-point injuries.
Clarify Workflows & Processes
Provide customized visual cues for each part of a process or workflow, whether that’s required steps for operation of manufacturing equipment or lockout/tagout procedures for equipment, machinery, or vehicles. Heavy-duty machinery in manufacturing facilities can be a common site of injury², and clear messaging around proper operation is key to ensuring employee safety and increasing productivity.
Things to Consider When Designing Custom Floor Tape
Custom floor tape can be an effective tool in meeting the messaging needs of your manufacturing facility or factory environment. Consider these key factors before creating custom signage:
- Standards – Consult OSHA and ANSI standards before customizing floor signs and tape to ensure compliance with relevant regulations, including appropriate color codes, sizing, and messaging requirements.
- Format – Because both products can be customized, choosing between floor tape and floor signs comes down to your intended purpose and your facility’s needs. Floor signs may be best for communicating high-level visual cues, while custom tape delineates boundaries and aids in organization.
- Clarity – What is the most effective way to communicate your message? When designing custom floor signs and tape, incorporate easily understandable graphics, succinct, clear language, or a combination of both elements.
- Language – Custom multilingual signage helps ensure that health and safety guidelines can be understood, no matter the primary language employees or visitors speak.
- Sufficiency – Consider supplementing custom signage with preprinted products that support your message: Identify trip and fall hazards on loading docks by pairing custom floor signs and practical anti-slip tape, or add instructions for proper first aid protocol to support a pre-cut kit that identifies its location and specifies required clearance.
When existing options are insufficient, use custom SuperiorMark™ floor tape or signs in industrial facilities or factory environments to achieve organizational or health and safety goals. For more about how to use floor tape, signs, and other products in industrial environments, explore our Resource Center.
Sources
[1] OSHA Standard 1910.212 https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.212
[2] National Safety Council Injury Facts: Manufacturing Industry Profile, US, 2021; https://public.tableau.com/shared/G6S4R476B?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link&:embed=y
