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Keeping Labelling cost down …

Introduction:

When it comes to labelling, no area is more demanding than barcode label design and printing. Whether your printing labels using a desktop label printer, a high performance barcode / RFID label printer or in a production or manufacturing type label automation and application environment, the basic requirements are always the same.


Label printing environments require:

A Basic Design such as, an Address, Carton, Dispatch, Asset Tag, Name badge label etc..

A Trigger which can start and stop the printing process such as, a Print Command, a button press, a new job file or a sensor or infra-red beam signal being interrupted by a moving object etc..

A Media type, format and configuration to produce the basic design upon, such as, a thermal transfer or direct thermal label, wristband, tag or receipt roll etc..

A method to identify when the printed media has completed its printing process such as, Take label indicator, label presentation sensor, automated label applicator trigger signal etc..

A method of measurement to validate the correct reproduction quality of the basic design upon the media such as, a Visual assessment, camera scan, barcode verifier etc..

A method to apply the Media to its application substrate such as, an Item, Object, Box, Bottle, Carton, Case, Bag etc..


The forgotten cost of label design and print deployments:

Very often the label design it over looked as a key component in cost saving. A label design can drive the entire printing process. Careful label design can become a major cost saving when you take into account ‘Portrait’ or ‘Landscape’ presentation, Picket Fence or Ladder Barcodes, More or Less print head dpi to be applied within in the label design.

Even selecting the correct software licensing for your label design and print software can have a real initial investment cost impact.

There are a number of barcode label design software applications currently available on the market, each with one or more user licensing models (hard locks, Soft Locks, Concurrency, Web Locks, Snapshots, CD or Key unlocks). Matching such licensing models, software applications, printing media and label production hardware to your label production process can a complicated and flexible label design and print deployment strategy.

For the purpose of illustration of a number of the most common possible deployment strategies, the professional label design and print software selected to demonstrate licensing and deployment strategy in this review is NiceLabel.


The right deployment is the key to cutting costs:

Your deployment strategy is a key driver of your initial investment costs when you initiate, modify or upgrade your existing label design and print process. It is a this critical investment point that some of the largest initial savings can be made. Consider the following example requirement.


Example label design and print process:

Our example company, requires labels to be printed, during the print run the operator must input manually a ‘Operator Code’ and ‘Job Number’ using a single user PC (Print Station). This process is repeated on four different production lines. There are a number of different deployment strategies, but two strategies are principle among these.

Because the requirement is for a ‘Single User Print Station’, it maybe implied that the PC is not networked and in this case the label design must be local to the production PC for the print process.

Because the requirement is for a ‘Print’ only (not a label design), it maybe implied that the PC can utilise the lower cost strategy of a ‘Print Only’ deployment.

Because there are 4 x production lines, we can then purchase 4 x full entry level data aware label print and design software packages.

We also have the choice of investing in the more cost effective approach of 4 x ‘Single User Print Only Deployment’ (See Diagram 1, 2 or 7) and requesting the software supplier create the desired label design in advance for production time where the label designs will require no future design intervention (will not require modification of any form).

Finally we could invest in the purchase of 3 x ‘Single User Print Only Deployment’ with a ‘Single User Label Design Sentinel and 3 x Print Only Deployment’ (See Diagram 8 or 9).


So where are the savings:

The saving can be found in a number of areas when considering your print process deployment strategy.

Reduced software version selection to the basic print process requirement at each point in the process for example, using ‘Print Only’ versions where you only need a standalone single user print only station. Reduce hardware requirements to the basic hardware required to rack, stack and pack within the production environment as many of the shared media label design outputs as is practically and cost effective to deploy. Management each of the process’s that allow you to route, queue, manage, re-queue and re-reroute the printing process to avoid very costly downtime.


So where can savings often not be made:

Besides the obvious which is performance, reliability and quality, a good process will not see further cost saving if it has already been reduced and refined to its minimum common denominators i.e. ‘Single User Print Only Deployments’ ( See Diagram 1 or 2 ) other than to remove that ‘Print Only Station’ totally.


Concurrent Users:

A major saving can also be made by fully reviewing and planning your capacity at maximum peek concurrent user base. This approach can allow central software licensing to be managed and there by reduce the overall concurrent user base licensing of a software package.

An example of this would be, you can in effect (all be it not that practical) install 500 PC’s as fully fledged label design and print stations, but at anyone time, perhaps the maximum capacity required maybe as low as only 5 stations concurrently. A strategy which builds for this maximum capacity may only require a maximum of 5 concurrent network licensed client users. Unfortunately, poor planning often means, company’s purchase larger numbers of licences than the maximum concurrent user requirements may dictate.


Printers and KDU’s:

Good label design and print software, also can mean the reduction of hardware to the most basic label design and print process requirements. Sharing printers were possible, may appear obvious when one considers ink jet and laser technologies, but this is very much less obvious when deploying barcode label printers. Having professional label design and print software is always the key component here. Some deployments may also require queuing and routing based on the media type or application substrate, this allows for the minimum number of printers instead of having the same range of individual media printers repeated at each of the label design and print production points.

KDU’s, which is short for Keyboard Display Units, are very much direct replacements for entire PC’s where the PC’s are only utilised as a ‘Single User Print Only Station’ and there maybe no requirement within the label design to be data aware (linked to a external database). The KDU still allows the operator to input values via the keyboard in response to the prompts being displayed on the small single line LCD display which allows the operator to have access to a number of pre-defined label design templates from which to choose.

Replacing a PC with a KDU, not only replaces the hardware, in effect, depending on your application, it should also replace the requirement for any additional software, installation / deployment and support labour costs or resources which are normally required for a basic PC based deployment.

A KDU, can plug directly into a label printer (where the printer is compatible) and also drastically save on physical real estate (footprint) and in my personal view, are offer an extremely reliable and low maintenance solution.


Key to Success and Cost Savings in Label Design and Print Strategy Deployment:

Having been involved in a number of deployments from small single user asset tagging type process’s using desktop printers like the Zebra TLP2844Z 200 dpi with KDU, through mid-size deployments like high performance printers such as the Zebra 110xiIII 700 dpi printers deployed in dispatch areas used to label hard drive SAN and NAS arrays to the largest of fully automated robotic label fed Zebra 220xiIII PAX barcode labelling deployments with air assisted applicators which are triggered by label presentation sensors and stop / go in line verified barcode labels feeding RFID sensing production lines, one of the key components to a successful installation for me will also be the software at the foundation of the deployment strategy.

Diagrams 1 – 9, show some (but not all) of the possible label design and print station deployment strategies. Solely for the purpose of the diagrams, I have selected a trusted industrial software solution in professional barcode labelling software which is the NiceLabel range of products.

These diagrams should give you some idea as to the diversity of options available for label design and print deployment strategy and hopefully gives some insight and idea as to possible deployment strategies and which the range of NiceLabel software options can be applied.

Making the right choice of label design software and solution provider can be your first and most important steps to Keeping your Labelling cost down …

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