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Customer Story - Label Printing ChallengeWhen your company produces 350 washing machines per hour, a failure of your label production system can have serious consequences for the business. Our customer, who cannot be named here for legal reasons, needed a label printing solution that could be relied upon to produce the right labels for the current production, first time, every time!
Our customer had been running the same label printing system for the best part of a decade, to enable them to print the various rating labels required for each item produced, which include information such as hazard warnings and images, serial numbers and barcodes. The old system was custom written in an obsolete programming language and was complex and time consuming to operate.
They came to Barcode-IT with the requirement for a new, more modern system able to cope with high-volume printing, yet cut down on the number of staff needed for operation. Additionally, with the old system, if a printer broke down it stopped the entire shipping process, something which the company was keen to remedy with a new more flexible system.
"A failure of the old system could stop production and this was no longer an option." says Nigel Holloway - Account Manager at Barcode-IT "The new system makes everyone happy, production, quality control and senior management."
Barcode-IT recommended NiceLabel Suite (network edition) combined with a mix of Printronix T5000r 4 and 8 inch wide thermal printers to update their aging printing solution. Our customer is very happy with the outcome, as the system has fulfilled their requirement to reduce operational staff numbers and provides an easy to use, future proof label printing solution that is easy to use today and able to cope with changes the company may need in the future.
Application Overview
As several sizes of label are printed for the same product, Barcode-IT recommended that the company invest in several barcode printers. Each printer can be used to print a different size of label and act as a back-up to each other, therefore eliminating the problem of shipping being interrupted in the event of a printer failure.
"The Clever Part" The labelling of the washing machines is complex, with up to 3 labels per item depending on the make and configuration. A rating label is always applied but additional serial number and/or energy efficiency label may also be needed. When a new product is set up by the design team, an on-screen matrix allows them to set up which label(s) each product requires, which graphics or hazard symbols are needed and of course the link to the database with the actual rating data. Once setup the factory floor operators simply enter a single product number and the system prints the required number of labels on 3 different printers, as a complete set. The operator can then concentrate on doing the job, rather than worrying how many labels the next washing machine needs.
How it startedThis customer first visited us at a Barcode-IT Open Day looking to replace their existing label printing solution with a more modern and practical system. Barcode-IT were able to recommend and supply them with the right hardware and software solution for their business and the result was a system that will meet their needs for years to come, giving robust reliability of label printing and trouble free maintenance of the label designs.
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The customer required labels to be designed and checked in the office and printed out by the workers on the shop floor and so required a label design solution that could be accessed via the company's network by both teams. Once approved, the label design is stored on the network and can be brought up by the user, identified by a code given to each group of labels required for that product. The operator must then simply enter a quantity into the form and the labels are ready to be printed. 
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