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Anyone planning on setting up a warehouse or distribution center in Mexico is likely to need floor signage. Because, as in any location, floor signage in Mexican warehouses helps boost efficiency and promote safety.
For anyone looking to install warehouse floor signage in Mexico, it is recommended to work with an established warehouse setup consultant, in order to guarantee thatall installations are fully compliant with local regulations.
The rules governing safety in a Mexcian warehouse are generally set out by the Secretariat of Labor and Social Prevention (STPS), which your local consultant will have expert knowledge of.
Contact us if you need warehouse floor signage in Mexico, Brazil, or the United States.
The importance of floor signage in Mexican warehouses
Warehouse floor signage in Mexico is necessary for any sort of logistics businesses, because it helps you comply with local regulations, makes the facility safe for daily operations, organizes the space effectively and maintains a continuous flow of goods.
Warehouse floor signage in Mexico can take on a variety of forms, from simple warehouse floor line painting, used to delimit areas and guide people around the space, to floor signage that provides specific instructions or guidance.
Compliance
While NOM 006 STPS regulates the handling and storage of materials, NOM 026 STPS controls floor signage in Mexican warehouses. This technical standard establishes health and safety signage requirements, such as the colors and geometric shapes to be used. It also covers risks due to fluids within pipes.
Compliance with NOM 026 STPS is an obligation of both the employer and employees. The first must ensure that the signage is correct, visible, and legible, in addition to training their staff on interpreting these visual markings. Workers must respect and apply the signage elements established by the employer as well as attend training sessions.
Safety
Well-placed signage in compliance with local regulations is crucial to prevent occupational hazards. For example, it indicates to operators the direction of travel within the warehouse to avoid forklift collisions or impacts against the warehouse facilities or shelves.
In addition to minimizing accidents, floor signage in Mexican warehouses indicates hazardous or prohibited areas within the logistics business. It also delimits areas which are used to store dangerous materials. To make your workspaces more secure, combine these markings with warehouse guardrails.
Organization
Warehouse floor signage in Mexicos helps to delineate workspaces and maintain order. It indicates essential zones such as loading and unloading areas, storage of goods, order preparation, picking of products and their exit from the facilities.
A clean and tidy warehouse has well-defined zones for specific uses, where all elements fulfill a specific function. It is also characterized by its clear aisles with controls on the direction, quantity and speed of loading vehicles.
Time
Like hanging signs and those placed in aisles or on shelves, floor signage in Mexican warehouses is necessary for workers to know where to go, whether to put goods that have just arrived at the facility or to pick those that need to be delivered.
While these markings help workers save time moving products, they also help new employees quickly understand the warehouse layout design. Clear, easy-to-read markings provide information at a glance, making warehouse operations more efficient.
3 types of warehouse floor signage in Mexico
Floor signage in Mexican warehouses has been developed and standardized to meet the needs of logistics businesses. In general, there are three common ideas to take into account: classic signage, the 5S system, and safety symbols.
1) Classic
Classic floor signage in Mexican warehouses is divided into tape and epoxy paint. Although both options are practical solutions, some factors must be considered to choose the best for your logistics business.
Warehouse floor marking tape consists of adhesive strips of resistant materials and different colors that can easily be pasted and peeled off. However, durability can be an issue, especially in highly trafficked areas. In addition, it is less resistant to some liquids used in industrial warehouse cleaning.
On the other hand, epoxy paint is more durable and requires less maintenance. However, opting for paint for floor signage in Mexican warehouses is more costly, time-consuming, and less flexible in case of erasing or modifying markings.
2) 5S
Another solution for floor signage in Mexican warehouses is 5S floor marking. Created in Japan, this methodology helps optimize productivity through signs. Its correct placement organizes the different zones within the warehouse and improves safety. While new, it is gaining in popularity.
This system is based on five pillars: seiri (sort), seiton (stabilize), seiso (shine), seiketsu (standardize) and shitsuke (sustain). In order to succeed and help improve operations, it needs to be color-coded and patterned according to the regulations of each territory.
As this is a specialized methodology, hiring an expert for its implementation is recommended. A warehouse setup consultant, for example, will know whether tape or paint is best and will offer durable materials best suited to the conditions and budget of any new business.
3) Safety
Floor signage in Mexican warehouses should create safer working environments, where each area is well delimited, such as emergency exits or potentially dangerous machinery. Therefore, any floor markings must follow local guidelines.
For example, regarding safety colors, NOM 026 STPS establishes that red means stop, prohibition, or firefighting equipment. Yellow is for danger and delimits areas. Green is used for safe conditions, while blue is mandatory and is used to perform specific actions.
NOM 026 STPS also stipulates geometric shapes for safety: a circle with a diagonal means prohibition, a ring indicates a mandatory action, triangles warn of hazards, and squares or rectangles provide information for emergency cases.
Serviap Logistics supplies and installs floor signage
Serviap Logistics supplies and installs floor signage in Mexican warehouses. We also distribute and install shelving and collision protectors, supply labels, and take care of cleaning your facilities.
In addition to Mexico, we offer services in Brazil and the United States. Wherever we operate, we follow the strictest standards to ensure employees’ safety and keep goods in optimal conditions.
Wherever we work, we have built a reputation for meeting tight deadlines without sacrificing quality or safety, helping us to become the trusted partner of some of the world’s largest and best-known companies.
Contact us to learn how we can help you with warehouse floor signage in Mexico.
