Chaos or correct labelling?
Labelling of in-process and finished goods can be quite chaotic. It is rare for a manufacturing company to have a harmonious production line, with raw materials coming in and finished goods going out in boxes with barcodes and shipping labels. Often production is a patchwork of different machines and islands of machines from different manufacturers, each providing a labelling scheme. This is a common problem for Danish manufacturing companies, but also for large international companies like Danfoss, which has factories all over the world.
Unification of printing and labelling in production
Incorrect labelling in production costs outrageous sums. When a production line needs to be converted to a new product or a customer-specific label, it can sometimes take days to correct the information in all the decentralised printers located at the semi-finished products, on the production line and in the packaging process. The complexity increases further for a company like Danfoss when labels in Nordborg have to be harmonised with those used at the factory in Mexico.
“It could take days to test a new label on a production line. Every print in production had to be checked. Each printer had a PC with associated label layouts and they had to be harmonised. If the same label was to be used in global factories, it could take weeks to implement. In reality, there was never 100% certainty that everyone had chosen the right label. With Tecsys Label Print Server, everything is managed centrally. Within minutes, the same label can be printed in Nordborg and in Mexico,” says Carsten Davidsen, Global Manufacturing Solution Manager. Carsten Davidsen is responsible for supporting all IT related production systems at Danfoss.
Tecsys Label Print Server harmonises the labelling process
Danfoss has a central labelling solution. 2 servers communicate with many different printers from different manufacturers: Intermec, Zebra, Tec, etc.. Tecsys Label Print Server uses few general label layouts and all information comes from a database. At Danfoss, data comes from SAP. This means that master data and variable data are merged – written on the same label layout. This saves the company a significant number of individual labels. The system is designed to receive data from any data source and if information from a financial system or production database needs to be merged, simply provide “4 lines” of code. Carsten Davidsen confirms that the system is easy to install and integrate into production.
Marketing changes labels
“It is often the marketing department that asks for new labels to meet different customer demands and branding of Danfoss. With Tecsys Label Print Server, we have a system where labels are centrally managed. The marketing department designs the labels and we control the content. At Danfoss we often use labels for quality control. When a product comes to a quality control, the product is approved and a label is printed, which we call a product label. Here is a product description with type, part number, etc. If the product is faulty, there is no label.”
“Over the last 10 years, Tecsys Label Print Server has been deployed in almost all Danfoss factories across continents. The system thus helps to ensure the quality of our products,” concludes Carsten Davidsen.
Solutions delivered:
– Tecsys Label Print Server
Advantages of the solution:
– A central solution to manage product labelling
– Rapid implementation of new labels
– Uniform labelling in all factories
Description of the solution:
Tecsys Label Print Server is a central server that can communicate with many printers. The central management of labels minimises errors in production.