5s Floor Marking Guide and Color Recommendations for Lean manufacturing

http://www.slideshare.net/MightyLineFloorTape/5s-floor-marking-guide-for-lean-manufacturing-and-osha-compliant      

Color-coded floor markings are commonly used as part of 5S and visual-management programs to help employees quickly distinguish walkways, work areas, equipment locations, material zones, and other designated spaces.

It is important to distinguish OSHA requirements from 5S and facility color conventions.

OSHA 29 CFR 1910.144 establishes specific safety-color requirements in certain situations. For example, OSHA identifies red for certain danger and emergency-stop applications and yellow for caution and the marking of certain physical hazards.

OSHA 29 CFR 1910.176(a) also requires permanent aisles and passageways to be appropriately marked in workplaces where mechanical handling equipment is used.

However, OSHA does not prescribe one universal floor-marking color system for every warehouse, manufacturing facility, or 5S program.

Facilities commonly develop a consistent color standard based on their operations, hazards, visual-management program, and other standards or requirements applicable to their workplace.

A typical facility or 5S color system may use:

• Yellow — commonly used for aisle boundaries, traffic areas, or areas requiring heightened attention.
• Red — commonly associated with danger, stop, or certain fire-related applications.
• Black — commonly used by some facilities to identify finished goods or other designated areas.
• Blue — commonly used for work-in-progress, equipment, or other designated operational areas.
• Orange — commonly used for inspection, temporary status, or designated operational areas.
• Green — commonly used for safety-related locations or designated safe areas.
• White — commonly used for equipment locations, racks, workstations, or general facility boundaries.

These examples should be treated as common facility and 5S conventions rather than universal OSHA requirements.

Each facility should establish and document a consistent color system that reflects its specific operations and applicable safety requirements.

Mighty Line offers 5S floor marking products, industrial floor marking tape, and floor signs to help facilities create consistent visual-management systems.

Floor Marking and Regulatory Requirements

Floor markings can play an important role in workplace organization and in supporting applicable safety requirements, but no single floor-marking color system automatically makes a facility OSHA compliant.

Facilities should evaluate the OSHA standards, industry requirements, voluntary standards, and internal safety policies applicable to their operations when establishing a floor-marking program.

If you need help selecting floor marking colors, widths, signs, or layouts for your facility, contact Mighty Line.