Zebra Technologies : How to Apply “Lean” Principles to Your Labeling

*This post was written by Kevin Ledversis, Sales Director for Newcastle Systems, a registered Zebra ISV.

How much work have you done evaluating your labeling processes in the last two-to-three years? When drilling down into process improvements, labeling is by far the most overlooked process in today's manufacturing, warehousing, retail, government, utility, and even healthcare facilities. In fact, one of the most common things we hear from our own resellers is that most customers don't think about labels until they have a visible problem - and that's an issue considering the label is the most critical piece of information attached to your product or package. If it falls off easily, has blurry or faded print, or can't be read accurately, then the entire order or product loses its value. (We take a deeper dive into solving for this in our downloadable 'Warehouse Guide to Lean Labeling').

But labeling problems can hurt operations long before they appear on the floor or any performance dashboard. And ignoring the critical role your labels play in being an efficient facility can result in costly 'solutions' that don't really address the problem. That's why 'Lean Labeling' should be a natural add-on to your checklist of standard processes to measure.

What's Involved in 'Lean Labeling'?

Many tend to think of the 'Lean' philosophy of continuous process improvement relative to manufacturing. However, it can be used by any business to reduce or eliminate waste within any process. 'Lean Labeling' facilitates the review of the whole process, top to bottom, from design to discard to identify opportunities for improvement. (Remember, problems related to label performance aren't just limited to the physical labels.)

Here are some signs to indicate issues might either exist now or arise in the future and need to be addressed via Lean Labeling:

- Label and Ribbon Combinations

We're often asked why there are so many combinations on the market, and the simple answer is that 'printing is highly personalized.' A single printer may be capable of producing 10 different types of labels and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in support of just as many different production, inventory management and fulfillment requirements. And using the right label/ribbon combination really makes a difference in the output quality. There are potentially dozens of factors to consider:

o Where is your facility? Hot humid summers require different labels than locations with cooler, dryer ones.

o How cold does it get? Applying the label to a cold surface requires a different solution than one just stored in or passing through cold environments.