If finding product depends on asking the one person who knows where everything is, every new hire and every sick day slows the pick. Location labels are cheap, need no new software and make the warehouse readable to anyone. Here is what good labeling looks like.

Start with the location code

The label is only as good as the code printed on it. Settle the scheme before you print anything.

  • Build it from the top down. Zone, aisle, bay, level, and position if you split a level. For example, C-02-04-B could mean cooler, aisle 2, bay 4, level B.
  • Keep one length and one format. Use leading zeros (02, not 2) so codes read and sort the same way everywhere.
  • Use letters and numbers by position. If levels are letters and aisles are numbers, nobody confuses aisle 2 with level 2.
  • Skip look-alike characters. Leave out the letters O and I, which read as zero and one.
  • Number in walking order. Bays should count up in the direction pickers travel. In an aisle with racks on both sides, odd numbers on one side and even on the other is a common choice.
  • Letter levels from the floor up. Level A at the bottom means adding a level on top does not renumber everything below it.
  • Write the scheme down. Post a simple map at the end of each aisle and keep a copy with whoever adds new locations.

What goes on the label

  • The location code in large characters, readable from where a picker stands, not only up close.
  • A barcode of the same code. Code 128 is a common choice for location labels. Test it with the devices your pickers actually use, at the distance they actually stand.
  • Human-readable text under the barcode, so a scuffed barcode can still be keyed in.
  • The item, for fixed slots only. If an item always lives in one place, printing its name or number on the label helps new pickers. Skip it for locations whose contents change, or the label will be wrong within a week.
  • An arrow for upper levels. When labels for higher levels sit on a lower beam, an arrow pointing up or down shows which level each one belongs to.

Keep location barcodes visibly different from the barcodes on the cases. Item barcodes, including GS1 barcodes, identify the product. Location barcodes identify the place. A picker should never scan one when the system expects the other and get a confusing answer.

Where to mount it

  • Same spot on every location. When the label is always in the same place, the eye goes straight to it.
  • On the beam below the pallet position for racking, and on the shelf edge for shelving.
  • Reachable for high levels. Put upper-level labels at a height people can read and scan, using arrows, or use labels made to scan from farther away.
  • Color by zone if it helps. For example, one color for frozen, one for the cooler and one for dry. Pick colors that still read under your lighting, and never rely on color alone, since some of your team may not tell certain colors apart.

Materials that survive the cold

Food warehouses are hard on labels. Paper on a wet or frozen surface does not last.

  • Use synthetic label stock, such as polyester or polypropylene, in coolers, freezers and wash-down areas.
  • Match the adhesive to the temperature. Standard adhesive often lets go on cold surfaces. Freezer-grade adhesive is made for it. Apply to a clean, dry surface, and check whether your labels can be applied cold or need to go on before the room is chilled.
  • Print to last. Direct thermal labels fade with heat and light over time. Thermal transfer printing with a durable ribbon holds up better for labels that stay up for years.
  • Consider magnetic labels or holders on steel racking where locations get reassigned often.

Scan the location, not just the item

If your software supports a location scan, have the picker scan the location first and the case second. The system confirms the picker is in the right place before anything moves. That catches the most common mistake: picking from the slot next door when the target looks empty. Without that check, a wrong-slot pick shows up later as a count variance on two items and a wrong case at a customer.

Even without a location scan, clear labels pay off. A location on a pick ticket becomes something a new hire can find without help, and a cycle count can be done section by section without guessing where one location ends and the next begins.

A relabeling plan

  1. Map first. Walk the building, draw the zones and aisles, and settle the code scheme.
  2. Print in walking order, one batch per aisle, so labels come off the roll in the order you will apply them.
  3. Relabel one aisle at a time, after picking is done for the day, and update the locations in your system as you go.
  4. Test as you go. Scan a sample of new labels in each aisle with the devices pickers use.
  5. Remove old labels the same day. Two labels on one location is worse than none.

Keep it up

Labels decay. Give one person the job of owning them. Replace damaged labels the week they are reported, label new locations before anything goes into them, and walk the building after every layout change. Our guide to a putaway flow that keeps receiving moving covers how locations get used once they are labeled.

How APFoodz fits

In APFoodz you design pallet and case labels and print them to a Zebra or any other printer. The warehouse app handles picking, receiving, putaway and counts on iOS, Android or a Zebra handheld.