Color Coded Shirt System on our Shop Floor

[Howard Atkins]

I have seen it in a number of countries.

In some places with yellow for inspecting staff, blue and white shirts for manual or office.
Different colours for different departments.
Some colour badges to show training status

As a visitor to many plants it looks more organised and controlled with a uniform shirt. It also shows a commitment on the part of the management for introduction of some form of esprit de corps.

In some countries such as India it is also a well regarded bonus to be provided with clothes.

 

[jasonb067]

"Lowly Workers" was borrowed from the post by Wes and no I do not think that Wes (nor do I) have some less opinion of someone because of their position or status. I just used the words because it fits within the context of this discussion "Us vs. Them".

Again, most everyone knows who works in quality, stamping, assembly, etc. Not because of the shirt but because of they know each other somewhat. I been in facilities with many thousands of employees and although they may not know their name they have some idea of which areas each other work in.

My main point is that shirt color may be a confounding factor if an environment of us vs. them is fostered. It is, however, not the root cause. Organizations with and without color codes have the us vs. them situation to deal with.

 

[silentrunning]

We have worn color coded shirts in our shop for 6 years and it has worked well. The company provides the shirts free of charge. It keeps some of the young ladies from exposing areas that are best saved for the beach and the humorus guys among us from wearing offensive shirts. These were both problems that caused strife in the past. One persons offense is another persons humor. As for me - I like getting free shirts.

 

[Randy]

The present "White collar", "Blue collar", "No collar" is what's going to be dominent

 

[bobdoering]

Does one really think if everyone wore black t-shirts and jeans that the "us vs them" would go away? It is an informal "grapevine" management issue - much bigger than apparel or any formal management issue.

I agree, creating an inoffensive professional environment is usually interpreted as pride in work by a customer (a la 5S). I always like the uniforms with names on them....for obvious reasons.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Does one really think if everyone wore black t-shirts and jeans that the "us vs them" would go away? It is an informal "grapevine" management issue - much bigger than apparel or any formal management issue.

I agree, creating an inoffensive professional environment is usually interpreted as pride in work by a customer (a la 5S). I always like the uniforms with names on them....for obvious reasons.

Back in then early 90's, I visited a plant in southern California owned by an Asian conglomerate - EVERYBODY, male and female, from the chief executive down to the janitors, wore the same uniform - same color knit polos (long or short sleeve) and khaki slacks. For me, it was a very bizarre experience.

 

[bobdoering]

Back in then early 90's, I visited a plant in southern California owned by an Asian conglomerate - EVERYBODY, male and female, from the chief executive down to the janitors, wore the same uniform - same color knit polos (long or short sleeve) and khaki slacks. For me, it was a very bizarre experience.

There have been some people fooled by that exerience - they thought they were talking to a process operator, and it was the plant manager. They were all dressed alike. I don't mind the concept...just have name tags. That works great. Uniforms make the trip to the closet in the morning uneventful. Love it.

 

[palmer]

Where I currently work, hard hats are required. We have different colored hard hats for each group of ee's:

Red = electrician
Blue = maintenance
White = supervisor
Yellow = employee
Gray = New hire
Green = Temporary ee

It made it easy to know who you were dealing with.

At my old employer, We had overcoats (luncheon meat co) that designated who you were.

White = packaging
light blue = manufacturing
dark blue = QA

It worked quite well.

 

[ScottBP]

They use color coded hardhats at nuclear power plants as well:
Yellow: Radiation Protection
Blue: Decontamination teams
Orange: Housekeeping
Green: Safety
Black: Security
White: Everybody else (color coded tape for operators, visitors, crafts people like welders, electricians, scaffold builders, painters, etc.)
And of course, just like football helmets, the cleaner the hard hat the less time the person has been inside the plant