Labels and signs are how a facility talks to the people in it without anyone having to ask. In a visual workplace, every location, item, hazard, and instruction is marked clearly enough that a new hire on the night shift can find a part, read a hazard, and put a tool back in the right place without help. That is the goal of the 5S Set in Order step, and labels are what make it stick: floor marking gives an item a home, and the label is what tells you whose home it is.
Labels vs. signs
The terms overlap, but in practice a label is attached to the thing it describes (a bin, a shelf, a pipe, a machine, a container) and a sign is posted near a place or condition (a doorway, an aisle, a hazard zone, a work cell). Labels identify; signs instruct and warn. Both are made from the same materials, and an industrial label printer produces both.
What to label in a 5S facility
A useful rule: if someone could reasonably ask "where does this go?" or "what is this?", it needs a label. The usual list:
- Racks, shelves, and bins. Location labels (aisle, bay, level, position) plus a part or product label on each bin. This is the single highest-return labeling job in most warehouses.
- Tool and equipment homes. Shadow boards and outlined floor locations labeled with the item name, so an empty spot is obviously an empty spot and not just floor.
- Machines and workstations. Asset ID, operating instructions, lockout points, and required PPE at the point of use.
- Pipes and valves. Contents and flow direction, following the ANSI/ASME A13.1 color scheme. Covered in detail in our pipe marking guide.
- Hazardous materials. Every container of a hazardous chemical needs a label that meets the OSHA Hazard Communication standard (see below).
- Electrical panels and disconnects. Circuit identification, arc flash warnings where required, and a keep-clear sign at the floor.
- Doors, rooms, and areas. Room names, cell names, department boundaries, and the color legend for your floor marking.
- Material status. Received, in process, on hold, inspected, rejected. Often done with color-coded tags or kanban cards rather than fixed labels.
- 5S red tags. Items pulled during Sort get a red tag listing what the item is, who tagged it, when, and the proposed disposition.
Safety sign and label standards
Identification labels have no regulatory format. Safety signs and hazard labels do.
- OSHA 1910.145 covers accident prevention signs and tags: Danger (red), Caution (yellow), Safety Instruction (green), and the biological hazard symbol, plus requirements for accident prevention tags used on equipment. OSHA has accepted signs that follow the current ANSI Z535 format as meeting this standard.
- ANSI Z535 is the consensus standard for safety signs and labels. Z535.2 covers facility signs; Z535.4 covers product safety labels. Both use the same signal word hierarchy: DANGER (will cause death or serious injury), WARNING (could cause death or serious injury), CAUTION (could cause minor or moderate injury), and NOTICE (non-hazard information such as property damage or policy). Each signal word has a fixed color and the sign carries a safety alert symbol, a pictogram, and a message panel.
- OSHA 1910.1200, the Hazard Communication standard, requires GHS-aligned labels on hazardous chemical containers: product identifier, signal word, hazard statements, pictograms, precautionary statements, and supplier information. Secondary containers filled in-house need, at minimum, the product identifier and the hazard information.
- ANSI/ASME A13.1 sets the color code and label format for piping systems.
- NFPA 70E drives arc flash warning labels on electrical equipment where an arc flash hazard exists.
The practical consequence: identification labels can look however your facility decides, but a sign that warns of a hazard should use the ANSI signal word, color, and layout. A homemade "DANGER" sign in the wrong color is a finding waiting to happen.
Choosing label materials
The most common reason labels fail is that an office label was put in an industrial environment. Match the material to the conditions:
- Indoor, clean, low traffic (shelving, bins, office areas): standard vinyl or polyester label stock.
- Chemical exposure, washdown, outdoor: polyester or vinyl with a laminate over the print, and an adhesive rated for the surface and temperature.
- Floor-level (locations, arrows, signs): a floor sign or floor-rated label with a textured, forklift-tolerant laminate, not a wall label stuck to concrete.
- Rough, textured, or curved surfaces: a high-tack adhesive, and for pipes, a wrap-around pipe marker rather than a flat label.
- Pre-printed warning labels: standard hazards (hot surface, pinch point, electrical) are cheaper to buy pre-printed and die-cut than to design, since the pictograms and layout are already compliant.
Print your own or buy pre-made?
Both have a place, and most facilities do both.
Buy pre-made when the content is standard and regulated: OSHA/ANSI hazard signs, GHS pictogram labels, exit signs, common pipe markers. The design work is done, the format is compliant, and the per-unit cost is low.
Print your own when the content is specific to your facility: rack and bin locations, part numbers, equipment IDs, cell names, procedures, and anything that changes when the layout changes. An industrial label printer prints on durable vinyl in the standard safety colors, and a 5S program generates hundreds of location labels in its first month and a steady stream afterward as areas are reorganized. Waiting on an outside order for every change is the fastest way to let labeling fall behind the floor.
How labels support each 5S step
- Sort. Red tags on every item pulled from the area.
- Set in Order. Location labels on every home created in this step. This is where most labeling happens.
- Shine. Cleaning schedules and checklists posted at the point of use; inspection labels on equipment.
- Standardize. One label format, one color legend, one sign template, applied the same way in every area and documented so the next area matches.
- Sustain. Label condition on the audit sheet: present, legible, correct. The 5S Scorecard is a starting point.
- Safety (6S). Hazard signs, PPE signs, lockout labels, and keep-clear markings, all in the ANSI format.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between DANGER, WARNING, and CAUTION?
They are ANSI Z535 signal words ranked by severity. DANGER means a hazard that will cause death or serious injury if not avoided; WARNING means it could; CAUTION means minor or moderate injury. NOTICE is for information that does not involve personal injury.
Does OSHA require labels on shelves and bins?
No. Location and identification labels are a 5S practice, not a regulation. OSHA requirements apply to hazard signs, accident prevention tags, hazardous chemical containers, and a few specific items such as exit signs and electrical equipment.
Do I need a GHS label on a spray bottle I filled from a drum?
Yes, if the contents are a hazardous chemical. Secondary containers need at least the product identifier and words, pictures, or symbols that convey the hazard, unless the container is for immediate use by the person who filled it.
What label material holds up on a warehouse floor?
A floor-rated sign or label with a textured laminate and an adhesive designed for concrete. Standard wall labels lift and tear under forklift traffic within days.
What color should a label be?
Hazard labels follow the ANSI signal word colors (red, orange, yellow, blue). Identification labels can follow your floor marking color code so that a bin's label color matches its location color, which makes mismatches easy to spot.
Labels and signs supplies
5S Today stocks industrial floor signs (custom floor signs are made to order at no additional charge), pipe marking labels, pre-printed warning labels, and industrial label printers with the tape and ribbon supplies to print your own. For the lines on the floor that go with the labels, see the floor marking guide.