As an owner and operator of a manufacturing plant, how do you remind your employees of daily safety rules and regulations? Are you wasting time at the beginning of each shift to inform everyone? Especially when you could actually be more productive with employees on the work floor at the beginning of their shifts?
With digital signage for manufacturing, you can keep your employees well-informed without wasting work time to do it. Digital signage for manufacturing plants can be placed in many key locations throughout your plant. Employees would be able to see and read the signs at different times during their shifts. Here’s more on how you can incorporate this type of signage into your plant and how to operate it.
Top Benefits & Uses of Digital Signage for Manufacturing and Safety Communications
On the Work Floor
Electronic displays are most effective when placed where almost everyone on the work floor can see them. The best places are near the time clock, high on the wall in full view of employees as they work. The displays will be hanging overhead from the ceiling when the lettering is large and visible to everyone. Choose the right placements throughout your plant, and the electronic signs will keep everyone updated and in sync.
In the Breakroom
This is a definite must. Whenever your employees take a break, the sign should be fully operational and running all the messages you need employees to read and know. During lunch breaks, employees will read and see just about everything they need. The information helps them stay current on accidents in the plant, training information, payroll information, and other work-related news. On shorter breaks, they can catch the snippets of updates during their shifts.
Handling all of this information via digital signage for manufacturing plants eliminates the need for employee meetings except for major changes and Q&A meetings. You can skip the breakroom meetings at the beginning of every shift and have everyone punch in and go right to work. When they punch out for a meal break, they get the information you would have given them in the old employee meetings. The plant becomes exceedingly efficient and more productive this way.
Outside the Plant
No doubt you have a company sign outside, right? Turn this into an electric sign featuring basic information for both consumers and employees. What times is the plant open? Communicate special greetings and days the plant is off. If your company publicly trades, you can use digital signage for manufacturing plants to convey this information. Anyone sitting in a car in the parking lot can read the scrolling information, and consumers driving by can read it too.
How to Operate Your Digital and Electronic Signage
Most of these kinds of displays are controlled via special software. The software is provided with the signs when you purchase your signage from the right company. The software helps you program the signs so that they operate in the way you expect, e.g., scrolling left to right, disappearing and reappearing messages, blinking or flashing messages, etc.
To program signage after you have purchased them and installed them in your plant, you have to install the software on one of your computers. It is suggested that the computer system you use to control or track other technology in the plant. If your company has an IT department, you may have them set up the displays and program them.
Once you have the software installed, you will need to enter a line of information to send your signs for testing purposes. You will need to provide whoever programs the digital signage with the text you want the screens to say. Start with a greeting, which is simple enough to type and send to your signs.
Once all of the displays register the greeting, you can choose to erase the greeting or make it part of the messages. Continue to enter lines of information you want the signs to convey. If you want the signage inside the plant to say things that are different from the sign outside the plant, there is an option to program each sign individually. And if you have trouble creating your texts and getting them to the write signboards, tech support can assist you.
At any time that the safety notifications or accident counts in your plant change, you can easily switch that information by reprogramming that information. The signs are down for a few minutes while the new counts or new notifications are uploaded into the signage. This is far better and more efficient for keeping everyone abreast of changes in the plant’s hour-to-hour operations than shift meetings.
Benefits of Incorporating These Signs Into the Plant
Alerting Employees to Equipment Issues
Another bonus to using digital signs in your plant is that you can alert employees to avoid certain equipment or tools. Let’s say that you have a paint booth. It is leaking and out of use right now because of the dangerous vapours and the potential for fire eruption. The digital signage can quickly read out that info so that everyone is alerted. Meanwhile, everyone that works with the paint booths will know that they should avoid that particular paint booth. The same goes for literally any tool and any piece of equipment on the line.
Increased Productivity
There are times on the manufacturing line where people are standing around waiting for the next item to come along. Instead of just standing around, they can be reading the screens overhead to see changes in production, notices about safety, etc. Productivity is increased because they are doing something instead of just standing around. They are not spending the first thirty minutes of their shifts in the breakroom listening to a supervisor relay the information on the signs overhead.
Notices About Shift Changes, Overtime, and Shift Layoffs Delivered in a Timely Fashion
Manufacturing ebbs and flows; that is the nature of the beast. When the work is low, some employees have to stay home. When there is overtime available, people will want to know when and how much they can pick up. Shift layoffs are the worst news, but it’s best to get that information as soon as possible so employees can plan. All of this information can be visible and useful on digital signs.
Remind Employees of Incentives for Avoiding and Preventing Accidents
If your plant tracks employee accidents and offers incentives if everyone avoids and prevents accidents, convey this information digitally. Employees are more apt to work harder, better, and safer when they know they are close to an incentive or award for doing their jobs safely and smartly. When the employees actually reach the set goal, you can use the displays to let everyone know how they will celebrate the achievement and when.
As you can see, there are multiple positive implications for using digital and electronic signs in a manufacturing setting. When you are ready, you can contact the right company to assist you with this project.
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