A sign of the times
April 1st 2005 Signage in the workplace doesn’t seem like much of an ‘issue’, everybody knows we need it and must have it. But, there are many issues surrounding the procurement of these signs, as Ian Clay found out when he spoke to Guy Murray of the Brady Corporation.
A recent report on safety signs shows that only 20% of some signs are recognised or understood. The survey, conducted by the Health & Safety Sign Association (HSSA) reveals that some safety signs were recognised or understood by only 20% of the respondents and others by up to only 60%. At the other end of the scale Guy Murray, UK sales manager at Brady tells of instances where a door to a boiler room in a manufacturing site was covered in up to 20 individual warning signs, the result of which was a certain “sign blindness”. The above are two extremes of the same problem. Firstly, people see signs but don’t know what they mean, secondly, they see so many disparate signs that they become immune to their effect. The question is ‘How do you get the signage right at your site?’
There are two main avenues open to the engineer or safety manager with responsibility for some signange at their place of work, either buy the standard or bespoke signange from a catalogue or generate your own on site.
The Brady Corporation, while perhaps being best known to HSM readers through its Seton brand catalogue is also the largest supplier of safety signs in the World, although safety signs isn’t all it does. Brady hardware, software and consumables can also be used to produce: general signs; pipemarkers; racking and bin labels; barcodes; HSID labels etc.
One of the messages Guy Murray of Brady was very keen to get across was that although for a magazine like HSM we might be primarily concerned with safety signs, and a user might have this as their main need, there are a host of other applications that the range of equipment and services Brady has available are suitable for.
A good example of this can be seen with an application for the flagship product in the Brady range, the Powermark label printer. The MOD use the Powermark when they are refitting some frigates and submarines. The Powermark is flexible enough and robust enough to genarate all the general information notices and safety signs that are needed when a ship is refitted. Creating all of these on one machine is a cost effective exercise and ensures that the signs have a uniformity, reflecting the professional environment around them.
The hardware As has been said the Powermark (£4195) is at the top of Brady’s range of label printers and is capable of printing 4 to 10” width labels of any length. It operates with two or four colour label resin ribbons using thermal transfer technology to print at up to 300dpi resolution. Next in the range comes the smaller Globalmark. Capable of printing on 1/2 to 4” width labels, this label printer has three different models: the full colour and cut – it can cut out individual letters (£2995); the full colour (£2495) and the mono-colour (£1695). Next comes the Handymark portable label printer (£625) and in the near future the company is to launch its Minimark printer which will come in at around £1000.
Now, the observant ones amongst you will have noticed that unusually I have mentioned the price of the hardware. It is important that these figures are kept in mind when we come to discuss the economics of on-site sign printing later on in this piece.
Included in the prices quoted above are two simple, user friendly bits of software.
Firstly, Markware is the design software and holds templates for signs that conform to UK legislation. Using Markware, any basically PC literate person can create bespoke signs for their individual site and culture. Markware allows the user to tailor an image to a message (in any language) which will suit their specific application.
Secondly, Brady Sign Shop (version 3.1 as we speak) software holds templates for all the basic signs (literally thousands of them) but also allows the user to customise them, perhaps with a logo or some additonal text. Sign Shop 3.1 is very user friendly and can help save a great deal of time and effort in certain applications. For example, given the hardware’s ability to produce pipemarking labels Sign Shop has a database of correct signange. All the user has to do is input the information about what is in the pipe and how wide the pipe is and the correct coloured and sized label will be produced.
A similar system is used to label containers holding hazardous chemicals or waste.
Importantly, there is no licensing required for the software and it can be installed, cost free, on any number of machines on a site. A huge advantage when purchasing a system that can be used across a large site for a whole number of different applications.
Despite the fact that the hardware and the software are user-friendly Brady does provide installation and training, this is again all included in the above quoted prices. Also, as Guy Murray says “There is no restriction on installation and training – all day, half a day, half an hour – there is no cost”.
It is, Guy maintains, in the best interests of both the end user and Brady to get the user to ‘use’ the equipment correctly. As such Brady will recommend that the user only begin with a small order for consumables as they can then learn how to use their system in a very cost effective manner. As well as the training that goes with the Brady equipment there is also something of an informal consultancy service that users can take advantage of. Brady’s representatives have a great dealof technical knowledge and experience and can help users ensure that their site is compliant with regulations. In some examples this has involved Brady supplying the whole technical specification (for a chemical site in the USA) but more generally it can be as simple as a walk around a site discussing problem areas or potential applications.
While the ability to deal with safety hazards quickly and effectively and the advantages of having a uniformly, clearly signed site are apparent, the economic arguments for on-site generation are compelling also.
Guy Murray says that having the equipment on site is “Generally cheaper than buying a sign or a label” – but he would say that. However, the comparison is clear if you study the cost analysis table. For example a simple 300 by 250mm Fire Action Notice costs around £4 in consumables when produced on a Powermark but costs over £10 when sourced from a catalogue. Now, that is a huge price difference but with a cost difference of £6, you would have to produce 700 such notices to justify your spend on a Powermark. The cost difference does ramp up sharply when bespoke signs are considered but the point is clear.
However, in that simple calculation we were not considering the ‘hidden’ or administrative costs that are involved in any company purchase. Price Waterhouse Coopers research has shown that for an average company ‘order administration costs’ are £80 per order. This cost is made up of of the time taken to process and manage the paperwork that each individual takes. So, if we do our Fire Action Notice calculation again we find that generating the sign on the Powermark is still £4 while purchasing it through a catalogue now costs £90. The company would only have to produce around 47 such notices to justify the costs of a Powermark, and then consider that a Powermark will last between 10 and 12 years. You could make the point to a finance director that if you purchase four signs per year then an on-site sign and label printing system makes financial sense, and could in fact represent a significant cost saving!
On-site sign and label generation answers all of the ‘issues’ that I can think of surrounding signage. If the people on your site don’t understand a sign, then it can be quickly changed or text can be added.
If a particular area is papered with warnings these can be removed and replaced with simple, uniform signs. The hardware and software are simple, robust and user friendly and the economic argument is straightforward. However, reflecting the pace of modern life perhaps the most powerful motivation for this type of system is, as Guy Murray says “With Brady you can make a sign quicker than looking for it in a catalogue.” | 
