Physical injuries are a leading cause of lost workdays and reduced productivity in warehouses, factories, and industrial environments. Implementing visual cues, such as safety signage and caution floor tape can strengthen employees’ awareness of physical hazards and improve ergonomic practices. When you effectively reduce accident-causing behaviors and improper handling, you’ll see fewer preventable injuries and a reduction of costly shutdowns, compensation claims, and citations. Read on to see how our warning tape, hazard signs, and equipment labels can boost safety in your workplace.
Visual Cues Reduce Ergonomic Injuries in Warehouses
Ergonomic risks are common in all environments, especially distribution centers, factories, warehouses, and industrial workplaces with repetitive tasks. Highly visible signs and floor tape offer reminders of proper work habits to protect employees from injuries caused by frequent lifting, reaching, or bending. See how the right visual cues can communicate mandatory or prohibited actions to improve safety and reduce strain and physical exertion.
Prevent Injuries From Heavy Lifting With Custom Signage
The most effective lift warning signs use highly visible icons, text, and colors to communicate a risk, such as an oversize carton or heavy load. Use our custom design tool to create signage that is understood at a glance to prevent employees from attempting a dangerous or strenuous maneuver. These heavy lifting signs can be created to share your required messaging, including to demonstrate correct posture, initiate a team-lift, or prohibit hand transport. Upload your own graphics, or select any of ours to design bold, noticeable visuals that won’t be missed or ignored.
Improve Awareness of Trip Hazards and Prevent Falls
Reduce accidents in your work environment by marking physical hazards such as ramps and stairs with safety tape and signs. These visuals increase everyone’s awareness to prevent slips, trips, or falls. Bright, noticeable stripes, checkerboard patterns, and bold solid colors effectively mark ledges, stair treads, or slopes.
For low-light conditions, glow-in-the-dark photoluminescent tape can provide extra visibility, and in slick locations, the gritty surface of an anti-slip tape affords better footing to guard against accidents and injuries. Pair these tapes with caution floor signs to layer your visual cues. Our inventory of hazard signs includes specific messaging and clear directions for nearly any industrial situation—from “Watch Your Step” to “Use Caution on Slippery Surfaces”—to improve vigilance and encourage safe practices.
Stage Supplies to Reduce Reaching and Twisting Injuries
Smartly staging materials and supplies can reduce strain and physical demands put on your employees, and improve workers’ efficiency. Use floor markers to indicate where tables, scissor lifts, pallets, and parts should be placed to create a more ergonomic workplace. Our X, L, and T pre-cut floor tape defines pallet and equipment locations in work cells with straightforward, peel-and-stick installation. And, the strips remove without residue or damage, so your workflow can remain flexible. Even though these markers aren’t permanent, the highway grade adhesive—and beveled edges featured in some designs—provide lasting performance in busy industrial workplaces.
Floor Tape, Signs, and Labels Improve Safety Near Machinery
When machinery isn’t used properly, it puts employees in danger and can lead to serious injuries. The right visual cues, such as safety floor signs, tape, and labels can provide clear, concise warnings around assembly lines and equipment to turn a workplace prone to accidents into an efficient, safe, and productive environment.
Apply Safety Labels to Machines to Mark Physical Hazards
Machine safety labels warn operators of pinch points and moving parts, and provide reminders for equipment guard protocols and emergency stop switch locations. The bold visual warnings and red type immediately indicate danger, and the physical safety symbols depicting gears, and crush, pinch, and entanglement hazards are easy to interpret at a glance to protect employees from injuries. Our self-adhesive labels are available in two sizes, or may be custom-ordered in specific dimensions as needed.
Create Barriers and Mark Clearances
A factory’s equipment can have moving parts, exposed blades, and sharp or hot sparks which pose physical dangers to employees if the proper distance isn’t observed. Communicate machine clearances visually by applying hazard floor tape around large or small areas, work stations, and equipment perimeters. Choose striping in your facility’s color standards for consistency.
For more specific risks, floor markers with repeat messages provide clear instructions, such as keep clear of electrical, do not block, or caution. Adding a temporary physical barrier, especially while performing machine maintenance, offers another level of protection and give everyone adequate room to work safely.
Ensure Proper Installation and Maintenance of Safety Signs
Correct application and maintenance can help your floor markings last. Start by selecting industrial-grade visual cues that are easy to apply and maintain: Our floor signs and tape withstand heavy traffic and demanding environments so won’t need to frequently replace your signs or tape.
Consider these tips while planning your safety markers:
- Choose durable signage that can be placed directly in pathways nearest the hazard.
- Place machine labels adjacent to the danger, pinch point, or gear, and use multiple labels if the hazard may be accessed from more than one location.
- Use a floor marker calculator to avoid guesswork when staging ergonomic workstations.
- Frequently assess your floor signs and make continuous improvements to go beyond OSHA or workplace safety requirements.
There isn’t one single solution to improve facility safety, but with these tips you can reduce common ergonomic risks and improve awareness of physical hazards to prevent injuries in the workplace. See our Resource Center for ways to organize industrial facilities to create safe, efficient environments.
