Guide to Warehouse Rack Labeling System

The name ‘warehouse’ automatically brings a picture in your mind of storage area where raw materials, semi-finished, and finished goods are stored in an organized manner. When we say ‘organized’ manner, not every warehouse follows it intact. There are warehouses wherein you can find the goods that are carelessly kept in heaps in every nook and corner. Unlike the past, nowadays, most of warehouse managers take efforts to streamline the operation with efficacious storing of products in order to enhance supply chain efficiency, product visibility, and productivity. Several tips and tricks have been incorporated and one amongst the most important practices that today’s warehouses implement largely to ensure a fast and easy stock flow is using a warehouse rack label.

As mentioned earlier, a warehouse is a stocking place of a wide range of goods in racks. Hence, categorizing goods with proper rack labels is crucial. You can follow the below-mentioned steps to complete the labeling process quickly.

Step by Step on How to Label Warehouse Racks

• Identify the Rack Type: Warehouse racks are available in varied options. They can be manufactured in styles that you never imagined before. With such diverse styles available, it is not a good idea to blindly choose a standard label to fit the purpose. One size fits all never works when it comes to warehouse racks. For example, depending on the product storage demands, the racks can be lengthy that stretch from one side or long arms protruding from a metal framework. Hence, you must identify the rack type first and then proceed with selecting the labels.
   
• Involve Your Label Manufacturer Right from the Beginning: Most of warehouse managers commit the mistake of involving the label manufacturer half the way. This is not a good practice. Involve them right from the planning stage. Invite them to your facility or send them clear images of your facility and explain to them the layout and structure of the racks. Allow them to walk through the warehouse and see the rack arrangement. This helps the manufacturer to have a clear idea of the warehouse racks labels’ application area. This, in turn, allows them to produce the most suitable types of labels right for the facility.
   
• Get the Right Label as per the Application: Get the label considering the surfaces to which they are applied to. If the demand is for a warehouse rack label that can be easily removed and replaced to another surface, then go for choosing a magnetic label. On the other hand, if the racks are subjected to constant foot and forklift traffic, then choose the ones that are durable enough to stand up to wear and tear. Speak to the manufacturer and get an idea of the labeling options available. You may also understand the customization possibility so that you can get unique labels that rightly fit the application area.

Labeling warehouse racks with crucial information is extremely important for enhancing product visibility, ensuring safety, boosting productivity, and augmenting inventory management, among others. Racks that are unlabeled would be extremely difficult to locate, which in turn delays the inventory movement.

Warehouse Racks Labeling: More Steps to Follow

Although the steps listed above along with the ones listed below might look simple, they largely contribute to the proper labeling of warehouse racks in less time. Overlooking these steps leads to unnecessary confusion and delays.

1. Ensure that the Racks are ready to Label: Sticking labels on a dusty surface is not advisable as it creates performance and durability issues. Hence, prior to labeling the rack, ensure to clean the surface in order to enhance the label’s adhesive value. Also, ensure that the information printed on the label goes in hand with the stored items. If labeling goes wrong, it will confuse the forklift operators or those who are manually moving the goods. This in turn leads to unnecessary delays in material movement. 
 
2. Label from Bottom to Up: It is always a good practice to stick the warehouse racks label from bottom to up. The bottom row must carry serial no 01, and when moving upwards it must be 02, 03, 04, and so on. This practice of numbering is beneficial when there are any future upgrades by adding rows to increase the height of the racks.
 
3. Final Check: Since manual labor is involved in sticking labels to the rows of your huge racks, there might be chances to commit mistakes. Sticking the label upside down, placing a wrong label, or inappropriate application are among a few commonly occurring mistakes during the application. Hence it is always a good idea to keep a supervisor who checks the correctness of the label with respect to each row of the rack as and when they are applied. This certainly ensures the right application without any room for mistakes. 

Few other points to consider while labeling warehouse racks include:

• Ensure that the writing on the labels is large enough for easy visibility.
• Choose bright colors like yellow, red, or black while printing information. This helps in easy readability even from long distances.
• Keep the information as simple as possible to read and understand even by low-level workers. Complicated jargons would confuse workers.

Warehouse racks label thus immensely contributes to pick the right materials from several rows of huge racks easily and quickly. As mentioned earlier, the racks which are properly labeled not only streamline the warehouse operation but also maximize the workers’ productivity. Planning to set up a warehouse with several racks in it? Then, get the durable racking solution from manufacturers like SPS Ideal Solutions and label them most efficaciously to recognize hundreds or thousands of stored goods without spending much time.

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