Guide To Color-Coding By Assembly Process

Color-coding by assembly process is an approach that is commonly used in meat and seafood processing facilities or more industrial settings. It is ideal for those with clearly defined steps in the assembly or production process and is not recommended for those working with allergens as a specific color-coding by allergen approach is best suited in those settings. 

For those facilities that do operate under true assembly-style production processes, this color-coding approach is fairly logical to implement. That said, careful planning is important to ensuring facility compatibility and long-term compliance.  

Here’s a step-by-step guide to designing and implementing a successful color-coding plan for assembly process distinction. 

STEP 1: DEFINE YOUR STEPS 

The first and most critical step in creating your color-coding plan is to clearly define your assembly or production steps. 

In food processing and production, this generally starts with a look at distinct steps that need to be kept separate to prevent cross-contamination. For meat and seafood facilities, the biggest example would be separating raw and cooked meat. Sometimes, there are also key processing steps in-between to take into consideration as well. For instance, many seafood facilities have extensive fish cleaning processes in place. Viewing this as a distinct step or set of steps on their own can help to ensure things like fish scales and other unprocessed and undesirable sections don’t make their way past this step and further down into the washing and packing process.

Industrial facilities across a wide range of industries often have key steps across a manufacturing process where products are treated differently by virtue of necessity in producing the product or for quality control measures.    

Whatever the industry, those with easily identifiable assembly or processing steps always start the color-coding process by making a list of those steps. For some facilities, these steps may actually be reflected in the physical design of the plant with defined zones. If that’s the case, it’s best to review whether a color-coding by zone approach may be better suited to your needs. 

Pro Tip: Keep Things Simple

The key to determining steps is keeping things simple. Forcing a step that isn’t clearly distinct from others is a recipe for confusion later along the way. It’s common for those working on a color-coding plan to get carried away with this list. In practice, though, it’s actually easier to work from—and see success from—a shorter set of steps as a starting point for framing your plan.

One way you might approach this step is to imagine you’re given 30 seconds to give a high-level overview of the production process to someone who’s not familiar with the goings-on of the facility—maybe a trainee employee or perhaps someone who’s entirely removed from the industry. You’ll often find that answer, “First we do X, then we do X, then that moves to X point in the process…” identifies those operational steps for you. 

STEP 2: NOTE YOUR BIGGEST CONCERNS 

When it comes to designing a color-coding plan, it’s always best to start broad and work your way through the details from there. This way, your most important considerations stay front of mind throughout the process. 

So, for this step, you’ll want to jot down your biggest concerns in regards to the assembly or production process. Most often this starts with your reason for looking to a color-coding plan in the first place. Additional concerns might stem from a functionality or safety perspective and even those most obvious should be noted as you’ll want to make sure your plan is meeting these critical needs every step of the way. 

Pro Tip: Reference HACCP Plans  

Food-safe facilities can generally reference their HACCP plans to identify and note many of these critical considerations.  

STEP 3: EVALUATE YOUR NEEDS FOR EACH ASSEMBLY STEP 

For this next step, take stock of all of the physical things that are used within each step of the assembly process that you might like to color-code. This might include cleaning tools, storage tools, product handling tools, wearables, and personal protective equipment. 

The best way to develop this list is to work with purchasing managers and everyone that works with each step of the production process to review what they are currently using or hoping to use. It’s important to be extremely thorough with this step. If there are multiple shifts, be sure to collaborate with individuals across shift times. If the staff is multilingual, be sure to include multilingual note-takers during this process. 

Pro Tip: Note Your Functionality Wishes & Must-Haves

Take note of what works and what doesn’t with what’s currently being used. If there are certain features that make a tool or product great, jot that down. If there’s something specific that prevents an existing product or tool from functioning in the best way possible, note that as well. 

STEP 4: CHOOSE YOUR COLORS  

Naturally, many people assume this step would come first in a color-coding plan. It’s actually a best practice to move to this namesake step in a color-coding plan once you’ve carefully assessed all of your needs. Ideally, you want everything that’s an essential product or tool along the production line to be color-coded, and referencing your list of necessities will help you to identify which colors will allow you to meet all of those needs. 

The most commonly used colors—and therefore the ones with the most product options—are blue, green, red, yellow, black, and white. Some tools also come in colors like pink, purple, lime green, orange, tan, brown, and gray. It’s important to consider whether your color selections meet your needs now—and potentially what you may need in the future. 

Pro Tip: Consider Contrasting Colors 

Utilizing contrasting colors can be helpful on a few fronts. It’s a great idea to use contrasting colors in neighboring assembly line areas to help ensure tools are used when and where they are intended. Some food and pharmaceutical processors and manufacturers choose colors for an assembly step that contrast with a product so that a tool or piece of a tool that might have found its way into the product can be more easily spotted. 

Likewise, those who are dealing with raw and cooked meat often designate colors for each that stand in direct contrast with one another to help guard against accidental crossover. 

Pro Tip: Don’t Forget Colorblind Employees

There are several color combinations that are commonly confused by people who are colorblind. Red and green, green and brown, green and blue, blue and gray, blue and purple, green and grey, and green and black are the most commonly confused. It’s best to try to avoid these combinations in neighboring steps along the assembly line. Utilizing contrasting colors can be helpful on this front as well. Orange and purple, purple and yellow, or blue and yellow are good examples of colorblind-friendly pairs. 

STEP 5: CONSIDER YOUR STORAGE NEEDS

Tool storage is an important component of any color-coding plan. Wall racks and shadowboards that are color-coded for each separate step helps to ensure your tools are hygienically stored in the right place every time following use. Having a set storage location for each of your tools is known to make it easier for employees to remember and follow proper storage protocol. Additionally, hygienic storage helps to meet all of the goals associated with the 5S system in 5S facilities. 

Pro Tip: Factor In Your Cleaning Needs 

Whether tools are functionally used for cleaning or simply just need to be cleaned after use, there are things to consider on the cleaning use front when selecting tool storage. Shadowboards, in particular, can come in a variety of materials that can better accommodate different needs. Max Duty Aluminum shadowboards can resist chemicals, abrasions, and impacts. An Ultra Aluma-Lite™ shadowboard resists impacts, flexing, vandalism, corrosion, chemicals, abrasions, and is impervious to splashes and wash-downs. FB-X Accu-Shield shadowboards are chemical resistant and can withstand splashes and ammonia wash-downs. 

STEP 6: DON’T SKIMP ON SIGNAGE 

Signage that reminds employees of the color-coding plan is another essential component, so it’s important to remember as a budgetary line item. Best practices for color-coding signage are to make sure signage is easily read and highly visible, colorblind-friendly, and available in multiple languages if applicable to multilingual teams. 

Pro Tip: Take Advantage Of Customization Options 

Creating custom signage gives facilities the opportunity to tailor the signs to the plan’s needs, to the material that is best suited for the environment, and even offers the option to align the overall design with a company’s brand guidelines. 

STEP 6: TRAIN ON & EVALUATE THE PLAN REGULARLY

A color-coding plan is a key operational component of a facility and should be incorporated into the company culture as much as possible—as both an expectation and something employees can feel good about being a part of. Training on the color-coding plan is an ongoing and essential step in this process. It should be done regularly with existing employees and as new employees join the team. It’s also important to evaluate the plan regularly to see what’s working well and what isn’t to consider potential changes. Allowing for employees to offer any feedback along the way is a great way to encourage employee buy-in. A color-coding plan is always more likely to be followed by those who feel invested in the process, so it’s essential to invite collaboration and comment. 

Pro Tip: Work With HR 

Your HR team can help to establish the importance of a color-coding plan from the jump in interviews and during the hiring process. Communicating the importance of the plan early on is a great way to establish its significance as it relates to each and every team member. 

HR can also be a great resource for keeping tabs on new employees who require training and on language needs for multicultural teams to accommodate in training sessions and on signage.