Five Most Common Labeling

System Mistakes

Common mistakes that can make you lose

customers, cost you money and put your

company at risk…and how to correct them.

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Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3

Five Most Common Mistakes ........................................................................................................................ 4

Mistake #1 - Creating One Label File for Each Product............................................................................. 4

The Problem: The ‘one product per label file’ dilemma ...................................................................... 4

The Risk: Business interruption, loss of man hours, and mistakes ..................................................... 5

The Solution: Consolidate to one or a few templates and control the process .................................. 6

Mistake #2 - Allowing Labels to ‘Evolve’ Out of Compliance .................................................................... 8

The Problem: Lack of consistency causes labels to fall out of compliance .......................................... 8

The Risk: Returns and rework causing logistical costs, fines, and business disruption ....................... 9

The Solution: Formalize and control the process .............................................................................. 10

Mistake #3 – Overreliance on Manual Entry .......................................................................................... 12

The Problem: Manual entry creates opportunity for costly printing errors. ..................................... 12

The Risk: Product recall, loss of reputation, and legal exposure ....................................................... 13

The Solution: Utilized existing software features to reduce manual entry ....................................... 14

Mistake #4 – Printing Labels That Require Constant ‘Fine Tuning’ ........................................................ 16

The Problem: Print users constantly adjusting the label format, printer, and supplies .................... 16

The Risk: Decreased Print User productivity and cost of wasted labels and ribbon ......................... 17

The Solution: Adopt a best practices approach to label and labeling station setup ......................... 18

Mistake #5 – Poor Labeling System Maintenance .................................................................................. 20

The Problem: Neglecting your labeling system ................................................................................. 20

The Risk: Needless troubleshooting and the Cascading Crisis .......................................................... 21

The Solution: Best practices for Labeling System Maintenance ........................................................ 22

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 23

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Introduction Are you at Risk?

Production shutdown, hard drive crashes, loss of man hours, lawsuits, government sanction, costly

shipping errors, and customer fines or loss of the customer’s business altogether…these all sound scary

but can your labeling system create these problems for you? If your organization labels things, then

most likely the answer is yes!

The problem often sneaks up on you. The accumulation of labeling system

setup errors may cause a slow drip of wasted tasks and activities in production

wearing away at your company’s profitably. You may not notice the loss of

company resources with wasted label materials and unnecessary IT support

calls. On the other extreme, lack or good labeling system discipline, control,

and maintenance can lead to catastrophic system failure. These problems often

appear to come from nowhere and bring the business to a halt. In either case,

the risk is hidden but real.

Most of these issues can be prevented. Many of the ‘slow drip’ problems are

easily solved. Preparing for the catastrophic ones allow you to reduce the downtime from hours or days

to just minutes. In this guide we hope to help you understand the common issues and if they might

affect you, assess the potential impact to your business, and explain what you can do about it.

How to Read this Article

The paper is organized around each of the Five Most Common Labeling Mistakes we have seen during

the last decade. You can look at the Table on Contents and jump around to which ever ones you want

read and read them in any order you choose.

Within each ‘Common Labeling Mistake’ we break the content down to the three components listed

above: The Problem, The Risk, and The Solution

If you feel like you already understand “The Problem” and “The Risk” and just want to move straight to

“The Solution”, go ahead! Our hope is you can extract only the information you require quickly and

easily.

Why are the Pages Watermarked with “Draft”?

This is actually not the final document but our first draft. The new EBI Blog will periodically post one

chapter (i.e. one labeling mistake) at a time to get the information out to our clients and solicit their

feedback. We will take the feedback and then go back and update this document. Most of what we

learned in this business came from working with our clients. We look to our clients to help us with this

document as well.

Figure 1 - The 'Slow Drip' of Labeling System Costs

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Five Most Common Mistakes

Mistake #1 - Creating One Label File for Each Product

The Problem: The ‘one product per label file’ dilemma

As companies grow, especially ones that grow fast, they must prioritize. Product labeling can be an

afterthought in the rush to get products out the door. Often, the process of creating a label for a new

product is not really a process at all. Someone simply takes the label file of a similar product, copies it,

updates it, and saves it.

It makes sense. By copying the last file, we assume

the overall layout is the same. Hopefully it stays

within the original guidelines dictated by the

customer or by internal company standards (often in

Marketing or Quality Assurance). The user makes

many assumptions when doing it this way. But, when

your priority is to get the product out the door, this is

often the way labeling gets done.

This practice can go on for years and we have seen

clients accumulate hundreds and even thousands of

label templates this way. Although not as efficient as it could be, most clients don’t really consider this a

problem until a global label change requires the update of ALL the labels. Example of global changes can

include:

Change of physical address (if address is listed on the label)

Government mandates (i.e. CRF 21 Part 11)

A company merger or takeover

Software upgrades

Customer mandates

Figure 2 - Sample label…as a company adds more SKUs, they often will copy this format over and over again but this approach is likely to cause problems over time!

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The Risk: Business interruption, loss of man hours, and mistakes

Labor is usually one of the highest costs a company faces. Downtime for individual or group results in

additional and unnecessary labor costs. Losses may become catastrophic when the downtime reaches

across departments or the entire organization.

Individual Labor Costs

Completing one of the ‘global change events’ mentioned above usually means someone needs to open,

update, verify, and save EVERY label file ONE BY ONE. If the number of files reaches into the hundreds

(and they often do), this will take MANY hours. Regardless if this task is taken all at once or spread over

days, weeks, and months, the cost is real and effects the company’s bottom line.

Downtime across the Entire Organization

Computer system failures, such as a hard drive crash, can start a costly Cascading Crises (see Mistake #5

– Poor Labeling System Maintenance) that can interrupt your business operations across the entire

departments or the entire organization. A Lean

Manufacturing operation deploying Just in Time

manufacturing processes can quickly idle as the IT

Department hurriedly tries to restore and update old

recovered files or recreate them from scratch. The

downtime is exacerbated when dealing with a large

volume of label files. Regardless of your ability to

recover old files, the recovery is likely to take valuable

time.

Errors in Rebuilding

As human beings, we make mistakes. The stress and pressure of rebuilding the label files quickly and

keeping up with other job responsibly increases the likelihood of making mistakes. The repetition of

updating hundreds of labels under these conditions makes mistakes inevitable. Since we cannot predict

when or where these mistakes occur we won’t find them until an alert operator spots them during

production or downstream in the supply chain where the penalties can be costly.

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The Solution: Consolidate to one or a few templates and control the process

How Label File Consolidation Works

Instead of creating a new label file for each product, we recommend standardizing on one or a small

handful of label templates that can be reused for different (but usually similar) products. All the major

brands of industrial labeling software have the ability to use variable or fixed fields in the label file. Thus

the client can create a ‘template label file’ where all the data fields common to each product (company

name, logo, address, etc.) are saved as fixed fields. Data fields that vary depending on the part number

are saved as variable fields.

The printing process works like this…the user enters or scans a ‘key field’ (usually a part number) into

the software. The software connects to a database (often in an ERP or accounting system) and uses that

key field (i.e. part number) to look up other data that belongs on the label. Fields such as item

description, case pack, weight, size, color, etc. are pulled from the database. The labeling software

instantly populates the variable data fields on the label with this information and then voila! The label

prints perfectly.

Adding New Products Gets Easier

Need to add a new product? There is no need to create a new label. All we need to do is add that new

product information to the database. We can be absolutely sure that all labels using that template will

print the same every time.

How to you know which files should be consolidated to templates? Look for labels with:

The same physical dimensions (i.e. all 4” x 6” labels)

Similar general rendering or layout of fields

Use of the same data elements: logo, product description, etc.

Figure 3 - Example of label template using variable fields in CODESOFT by TEKLYNX

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Stopping the ‘One Label File for Each Product’ Problem from Reoccurring

To help enforce the use of just a few

‘approved’ templates, many labeling

software companies offer ways to

control access to the templates. For

networked environments, these

templates can often be stored in a

secured database (like SQL) that can

be centralized, protected, and backed

up.

At EBI, we can help clients setup these

system and can help automate the

consolidation process.

Figure 4 - Example of using software to centralize and control the label creation, printing, and approval process..."Checking Out" a label from the LABEL ARCHIVE SQL database.

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Mistake #2 - Allowing Labels to ‘Evolve’ Out of Compliance

The Problem: Lack of consistency causes labels to fall out of compliance

Most see product labeling as an operation performed from a PC

near a printer. Even on many automated assembly lines, the

printer and label applicator are driven by a local “controller”.

This controller is typically a PC running the labeling software

with a serial or USB connection direct to the printer and

applicator.

Label System Setup Can Encourage Label Inconsistencies

There are many options, but for a majority of clients (especially

small to medium sized operations), the PC is licensed with

labeling software that has full capabilities to create, modify, and

print a label. Therefore the person starting the print job also has the ability to alter the label and save

those results. This is where we often see label start to ‘evolve’. Either intentionally or unintentionally

minor changes to the label are made and, over time, confusion arises over the requirements of the

original label design. Reasons for these changes include:

Trying to make the label ‘look right’ before a production run

Copying or sharing files to multiple PCs and losing track of which version is ‘correct’

Accidentally deleted fields or scrambled database connections

As a consequence, the label format or template eventually falls out of compliance.

Figure 5 - ID Technology 250N label printer and applicator (controller not present)

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Figure 6 - GHS "Purple Book"

The Risk: Returns and rework causing logistical costs, fines, and business disruption

Customer Fines

Major retailers (Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, etc.) will fine their customers who are out of compliance

either directly (fee charged deducted from invoices) or indirectly (through shipping costs for immediate

expedited reshipment of new merchandise and return of non-conforming items). Either way the

supplier is stuck with the bills as well as the internal cost of interruptions in production and the

warehouse to get the new product out the door quickly and rework the returning items.

Government Compliance Mandates

For companies involved in the production of regulated items such as

chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food, or any product where mislabeling can cause

harm to the workers or public label control becomes an absolute requirement

and subject to government mandates. Mandates include local standards on

what information is provided and how it is provided on labels. International

initiatives such as GHS, or Global Harmonized System of Classification and

Labeling of Chemicals, not only specify labeling standards to protect

consumers but also seek to protect workers by requiring companies to clearly

identify product hazards within the company and supply chain. Labeling is

considered a critical part of these mandates and these mandates can carry

heavy financial and legal penalties.

Mandating the Process as Well as the Label Formats

Good Manufacturing Practice (or

GMPs) seek to protect workers and the

public and involve labeling standards.

By requiring these practices,

government expect organizations to

not only stay in compliance with

specific label format requirements but

also be able to demonstrate effective

document control practices to prevent

these types of problems in the first

place.

A good example is the FDA guidelines

laid out in CFR 21 Part 11. In this

section, the FDA gives guidance as to what types of procedures they expect to see for proper usage and

storage of electronic documents for companies under their jurisdiction. This PC based system described

above runs the risk of failing an audit since there are so many opportunities for human error and failure.

Figure 7 - FDA Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 Part 11

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The Solution: Formalize and control the process

To keep label flies from evolving out of compliance, the

organization should impose a strict process for label

creation and approval. Effective processes we have seen

include participation of the following departments:

Quality Assurance

Marketing

Production

Information Technology

The Role of Quality Control, GMPs, and GHS

Quality Assurance or Quality Control departments often start the process. As with other elements of

the product, QA and QC departments should require strict process controls and follow the same

approval process as other elements of product quality control. Effective quality control not only insures

that labeling conforms to the same standards of quality and consistency required of the product, it also

needs to guarantee compliance with customer and government mandates. When done correctly, this

approach protects the brand and company reputation as well as lowers costs.

The Role of Marketing

Marketing is also often involved in this process. The labeling (product, case, and pallet) are all

considered part of the product and often first element of the product the client sees. As part of the

approval process for a new or changed product, marketing will evaluate the way the label looks and

insure it meets customer requirements and expectations.

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The Roles of Production and Information Technology

Production must execute the labeling requirements correctly and consistently. They often work closely

with IT to make sure IT related equipment prints the correct label

at the correct time. Controls must be in place to make sure the

correct label file is selected and the correct variable data (lot

number, serial number, date codes, etc.) are applied to the correct

product batches.

Most industrial labeling software companies offer add-ons or

upgrades to their software that will facilitate this control process.

The software can allow for clients to centralize and control the

process of label creation, label approval, and label printing. In

these systems, the label files are stored in a centralized location for

easy access and backup purposes. Users log into the system to

gain access to the files. The level of access is controlled by

predefined set of permissions set by the system administrator. In

many cases, the software will also provide an audit trail tracking

who printed what label with what data at what time.

Figure 8 - TEKLYNX CENTRAL CFR is an example of software designed to help clients keep labels in compliance.

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Mistake #3 – Overreliance on Manual Entry

The Problem: Manual entry creates opportunity for costly printing errors.

People make mistakes. Even though this is common knowledge, many companies rely unnecessarily on

users to manually enter data during the label setup and printing process. Often this is variable data such

as date codes, lot codes, and serial numbers. Usually, we find, this data is either located in another

system (and the user transfers it manually) or is the result of an algorithm the user performs at print

time (such as definite a serial number like this, MM-DD-001, where MM is month, DD is date, and 001 is

a serialized number applied for just that date).

Industrial labeling software is usually designed

populate these data fields automatically. Human

intervention is eliminated or minimized. Data that

needs to on the label that can be found inside the

client’s ERP system, for example, can be pulled

directly from the system’s database using several

methods (ODBC link, SQL queries, XML file, etc.).

Users can also program the software to calculate

complex algorithms using data available on the

existing computer network such as PC location,

logged in user, and system clock.

Even though these capabilities exist in the software, we find a vast majority of our users are not aware

of them or don’t have the expertise in house to setup the label so they can be utilized.

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The Risk: Product recall, loss of reputation, and legal exposure

By not fully using the capabilities of the software, we find clients are adding risks to their operations.

Mistakes caused by user error can come from:

Poor employee training

Lack of oversight and controls

Being human

User Error is Inevitable

Even if a client establishes and maintains a comprehensive employee training program and tightens and

enforces oversight and control over the process we still can have errors due to the third mistake source

listed above. We are human. As humans we have great powers of imagination and creativity but we are

not built to do the exact same thing over and over again without the possibility of error. The possibility

of hitting the wrong key, remembering the date incorrectly, a misstep when picking the right label

format, plus a host of other potential slipups continues to exist.

How Automation and Turn a Small Error into a Big Problem

Some companies specialize in helping organization create and execute product recall plans and most

warn of the critical and costly makes from labeling errors. Ironically the most automated operations can

be the most vulnerable to human error. A mistake by one person setting up the labeling for a product

can, through the speed and effectiveness of automation, multiply itself over hundreds or thousands of

products. Especially if the client’s internal system of tracking the production and shipping of products is

weak, the cost of the recall can be devastating in direct recall costs and interruption in business.

Business Risk

It is not hard to see the business risk with mislabeling. Consumer

product and medical device companies carry an especially high risk of

legal troubles when mistakes are made. Organizations that make and

distribute expensive or heavy items can face costly recalls. All

organizations carry the risk of a damaged reputation which significant

even if hard to calculate. Driving out opportunities for user error can

be a simple and cost effective way to reduce this risk. Figure 9 - Dennis Quaid sued Baxter over Heparin product labeling

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The Solution: Utilized existing software features to reduce manual entry

The owner of the labeling system can look to several categories for ideas on how to reduce the reliance

on human input:

Use the Software or Hardware (not the Print User) to Collect Data

Allow the Software to Calculate Variable Data

Consolidate Multiple Label Files into a Few Templates

Have ‘System Events’ Trigger Label Printing

Using Software to Control User Permissions

Use the Software or Hardware to Collect the Data

Rekeying data is more than just a redundant activity. It also creates the opportunity for human error

and costly mistakes. Most labeling systems that we see use data that already exists somewhere else in

the network. Data such as basic product information, such as description, case pack, weight, size, etc.,

provides a simple but commonly seen example.

Typically you can find all of this information in the

Product Master or Item Master of your accounting

or ERP system. Nearly every industrial labeling

software application we have seen has the ability

to pull data from another data source based on a

‘key field’ or value. For this example, most would

choose the product part number as the key field.

The software looks into the table in the host

database for the Part Number key field and, once

found, pulls out all the other data related to that

key field.

Hardware can automatically collect data without human intervention as well. Scanners, as seen in

Smart Pallet Labeling Systems, can pick-up data on a box, case, or pallet and use this data to trigger the

printing of a label and populate the label with the correct data. Combined with software integration

mentioned above, we not only make sure the data on the label is populated without manual entry, we

also take the possibly of manually entered mistakes out of labeling printing and confirmation process.

Allow the Software to Calculate Variable Data

In some cases, the labeling software cannot pull the data from an existing source because the data is

variable at print time. Manufacturers commonly utilize this feature to create product expiration dates,

lot codes, serial numbers, etc. Often these codes include variable data such as the current time and

date, manufacturing location, or machine operator. The design of these codes can be very clever and

intricate telling you a lot about the product. From our experience, most labeling software can calculate

these automatically provided you understand how to build the logarithm into the software settings and

you have the correct edition of the software.

Figure 10 - EBI Smart Pallet Label System

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Consolidate Multiple Label Files into a Few Templates

Consolidating multiple similar label files into one or a few templates is a topic covered in Mistake #1 –

Creating One Label File for Each Product. This mistake makes the Overreliance on Manual Entry from

Print Users mistake worse. Usually, the first manual entry a Print User makes into the labeling system is

selecting the correct label file! Eliminating Mistake #1 will reduce or eliminate this potential error.

Have ‘System Events’ to Trigger Label Printing

The Print User makes another no-so-obvious manual entry when they hit the Print button. Printing at

the wrong time or to the wrong printer provides another opportunity for human error. Sometimes we

can eliminate this category of mistakes as well by tying the launch of a print job to a ‘System Event’. This

event can be anything including the entry of a sales order into an accounting system, the movement of

product down a conveyor, or the scan of an order number on a traveler.

Using Software to Control User Permissions

Software can control the access and functions available to different users. We have seen this done in a

couple different ways. One way is to purchase ‘run time’ editions of the software. Doing this provides a

simplistic but sometimes effective way to control access. Since the run-time versions of the software by

definition do not allow altering of the label file, companies will sometimes deploy workstations on the

floor this way knowing users cannot alter the files even if they wanted to do so. This method can be

effective for relatively small deployments however the costs in licensing and maintenance plus the need

for and centralized solution with medium sized and larger operations require a more sophisticated

different approach.

This more sophisticated approach involves centralizing the software licensing, deployment, and

permissions into a common server based platform.

Users are assigned to different user groups based on

their job responsibilities. When they log in (or often

the software uses existing Windows authentication)

to the system, the only have the permissions (label

creation, label approval, print, etc.) specifically

assigned to that group. Thus a print user cannot accidentally change the label format.

Software can not only help prevent errors but can aid the recovery process if an error occurs. For

example, features build into some software applications can aid in the process of a product recall by

tracking who made what labels containing what data on what date. Specific lot codes or serial numbers

ranges issued during that time or production run can then be tracked down and customers more quickly

identified.

Figure 11 - LABEL ARCHIVE provides centralized label file management and control

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Mistake #4 – Printing Labels That Require Constant ‘Fine Tuning’

The Problem: Print users constantly adjusting the label format, printer, and supplies

A Common Problem

We see this often with clients.

Over time, the organization purchases different printer models and brands and, printing different label

files, finds that each print run requires the user to make adjustments.

The need to adjust the label commonly springs from one or several issues including:

Tight label tolerances

Printing to a heterogeneous group of printers (different models, brands, etc.)

Different workstation environments using different printer drivers

Inconsistent loading of label material

These adjustments usually must be made before each print run and require the user to run sample

labels before printing the required labels.

The Label Fix Trap

Often the fine tuning only further complicates the process. Most software applications and thermal

printers offer several ways to adjust the label at print time. This convenience is nice at the time of

printing and helps the print user to get the label print job done. However, applying a fix

on one label may push the other labels out of alignment or other changes in label

quality including contrast, etc. if not applied consistently. In these cases, the

adjustments can actually make the problem worse. It is very easy to make a

change that compensates for one problem but causes another. We

call this the Label Fix Trap. Sometimes we can go full

circle and find ourselves fixing the label again we

fixed in the first place!

Users often Increase or decrease the heat settings on

the printer to compensate for images or text that print too light. This can

work for the current label. But, if different label or ribbon material is used

later, the change can create over modulation. This excessive heat will

distort images and making barcode unreadable. Scaling back the heat setting to

decrease on the next label will then reduce contrast and image quality on the original label.

When labels are not loaded in the printer consistently, the user may opt to change the label template to

accommodate for slight shift. If these changes are saved, the next user often needs to change them

back for the next roll when the labels are reloaded. This becomes a moving target eventually making it

almost impossible to load the label and print it correctly the first time.

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The Risk: Decreased Print User productivity and cost of wasted labels and ribbon

The constant tinkering causes lost productivity and increased cost of supplies as the printer user tries to

make each print job come out ‘just right’.

Lost Productivity Fighting the Label Fix Trap

For an experienced user with minimal label changes, managers may hardly notice. But the time lost

accumulates over time. If (more likely when) the job is turned over to someone new, that person

usually needs to climb the experience curve of making these mistakes. This often makes for a frustrating

experience for the new person since. In addition to learning their other new responsibilities, they need

to learn the ins and outs of sophisticated labeling software. Learning how to properly use the thermal

printer itself can be a challenge for the non-technical user.

Wasted Supplies

Second, label material and supplies are wasted during each test print. Some of

these supplies cost the client significant amounts of money. Even in situations

with a small cost per label, the accumulated cost over time adds up and is

unnecessary in many cases. For thermal transfer options, the cost of wasted

labels is also a cost in wasted ribbon since the company typically cannot reuse the

ribbon. If the running of test labels is causing the label material to run out

prematurely, then we start incurring more wasted worker productivity as

mentioned above FROM the waste in supplies. A double waste!

Figure 12 - Thermal Labels

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Figure 13 - Seagull Scientific has an excellent reputation for their Windows thermal printer drivers.

The Solution: Adopt a best practices approach to label and labeling station setup

As with the causes of the problem, there are also a number of solutions. If you keep these ‘best

practices’ in mind as you add printers and maintain your system, you should be able to reduce or

eliminate label adjustments:

Consistent use of labeling software printer drivers (not Windows)

Reduce the number of label files used

Preview labels before printing

Optimize printer choices (brand, model, and size)

Create SOPs for label change outs

Consistent Use of Labeling Software Printer Drivers

Each printer manufacture includes with the printer a set of Windows drivers for the customer to use.

Many industrial labeling software applications have their own ‘embedded’ drivers. Other applications

rely only on Windows drivers.

Most new users install the Windows printer drivers right away

before realizing that the software may already have embedded

drivers available. It is easy to overlook which driver you are using

(especially if you have loaded both) when setting up the label file

or changing the printer selection. There are arguments for and

against using embedded drivers and Windows drivers. We

recommend trying both but regardless of which you use, stay consistent between labels with the

Windows drivers or software specific embedded drivers.

Reduce the Number of Label Files Used

As already mentioned earlier and detailed in Mistake #1 – Creating One Label File for Each Product,

maintaining a large number of label files can be a challenge. Adjusting the label formats and drivers to

reduce the need to make the repeated adjustments will need to be done for EACH label file. We

recommend consolidating the label files into templates first if consolidation is part of the overall

strategy.

Preview Labels before Printing

Most industrial labeling software applications offer a ‘Print Preview’ feature where you can preview the

label before printing. We are surprised at how many users do not take advantage of this feature before

printing. Perhaps many don’t know the feature exists.

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Optimize printer choices (brand, model, and size)

The choice of printer purchased can make the task of eliminating the sources of

constant printer adjustments easier or harder. Here are a few principles to follow:

1. Standardize on Printer Manufacturer and Models

2. Upgrade Printer Models to Ones that Hold More Media

3. Distribute Print Jobs Over the Network

Create SOPs for label change outs

Simple guidelines to users can make like easier for users and reduce the temptation

to call into the Label Fix Trap….

Sometimes we see clients make adjustment to the label file to compensate for the way the labels were

loaded in the printer. This is poor labeling printing practice and will lead to the need for endless

changes in the label. To prevent this, we recommend clients adopt Standard Operating Procedures or

SOPs for the loading of labels and ribbon in the printer. Most industrial printers come with a label and

rolls guides. With proper training and documented SOPs to reference (and a little attention and care),

the user can make sure the label and ribbon is always perfectly aligned the same way every time.

Figure 14 – Sato Printer that can hold a role up to 5” in diameter

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Mistake #5 – Poor Labeling System Maintenance

The Problem: Neglecting your labeling system

Too often we see situations where a customer calls us in a panic due to some sort of system failure.

Systems failures will happen and, in a sense, are inevitable. However, what is not inevitable is the

downtime that creates the panic. If prepared, the clients can minimize the disruption caused by the

failure.

Sources of failure

Sources of system failure are numerous. Some are preventable. These include:

- Running out of label supplies (labels, ribbons, etc.)

- A bug (that has been fixed) is found in software

- Old software version fails and cannot be updated (manufacturer no longer supports it)

- User accidentally deletes or corrupts a file

For failures that are harder to prevent include:

- Hard drive crash

- Printer mechanical failure (i.e. print head needs to be replaced, etc.)

- Scanner not reading (if scanner is used in the system)

- Database connectivity lost

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The Risk: Needless troubleshooting and the Cascading Crisis

Costs incurred due to system failure range from the simple cost of paying expedited freight on label

supplies to the mounting and crippling costs of people and machines sitting idle or loss of customers due

to late shipments.

Troubleshooting Problems Someone Else Already Found and the Software Company Already Fixed

Most software companies prioritize bug fixes and often send out software patches. Therefore, if you are

not regularly getting and applying software updates, you may lose valuable time trying to diagnose a

problem already diagnosed by someone else and fixed by the software company. Make sure you are

regularly applying updates. Your software vendor or dealer should offer support and maintenance plans

for you to get these updates regularly.

The Cascading Crisis

A second and potentially more crippling

issue is the common problem of replacing

a computer after crash. The recovery can

take longer that you may expect. Steps a

client often must go through to build the

new replacement system:

Install and license new software

Update/upgrade old label formats

Recreate lost formats stored locally

In these more drastic situations,

unfortunately, a cascading series of three crises often develop:

Crisis #1 – Recovering old label templates and install files

Lost label formats will need to be rebuilt and likely stop (or bottleneck) your operations. The labeling

software itself may need to be reinstalled and relicensed. Line workers will not only lose ability to print

the labels, they also lose the many hours spent fine tuning the software settings and label files.

Crisis #2 – Updating the software

The second crisis appears when they try to reload the software. Many will find the old software will no

longer work in the new environment. Trying to upgrade the old software will further exacerbate the

operational delays as the company needs to purchase, install, and reconfigure the new software.

Crisis #3 – Updating the labels to the new software

If the old software was several versions behind, any recovered old label files need to be updated. Each

label needs to be individually opened, updated, and saved. This can be very cumbersome and time

consuming when tens or hundreds of labels are involved. Over time, the accumulate bug fixes can make

the update process more difficult possibly leaving some templates completely unusable.

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The Solution: Best practices for Labeling System Maintenance

It seems so intuitive doesn’t it? Any important business system needs a good preventative maintenance

program. However, when everything is running well, it is easy to adopt the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’

approach’. But think about it. Are we really saving ourselves time and effort by ignoring updates? Or,

rather, are we just postponing the inevitable (and making ‘the inevitable’ worse)? There are only two

situations where we recommend clients NOT apply a good preventive maintenance program:

1. The labeling system will soon be phased out (within 6 months)

2. The labeling system in not critical to business operations

Avoiding Preventable Causes of Failure

Simple steps can be taken to avoid the ‘preventable’ causes. Inventory management practices can

prevent supplies from going out of stock. The software can be kept on annual maintenance testing and

applying updates as they come out so they don’t fall too far behind. Applications like TEKLYNX LABEL

ARCHIVE can control user permissions and prevent unauthorized user changes or corruptions.

Keeping the Software Up to Date

Assuming this is not the case, the simplest practice you can

adopt is to keep labeling software and label formats updated.

Many companies provide the bug fixes and updates for free.

Some provide special maintenance programs that give you

access to all software upgrades as well for a small annual fee. For

clients on our EBI comprehensive support plans, we provide both

technical support and all software maintenance updates and

upgrades.

Protecting Label Templates

Move critical label template files from the workstation to more secure areas of our network. Since the

label templates are often the result of many man hours of time and effort they should be protected. We

have seen many smaller operations start by just creating a tree of shared folders and try to manage the

permissions through the operating system software. This simple strategy can become difficult to setup

and maintain. A simpler and more secure approach is to use software add-ons to manage these

permissions and store these templates into existing secure databases (SQL, Oracle, etc.).

Browser Based Printing

As an organization grows, the benefits of centralizing the entire system increase. Not only can we move

label templates, as explained above, to a secure and central location, we can use a browser based

printing system to centralize the printing process itself. These systems provide dual benefits of making

the printing process more secure and stable overall as well as decreasing the work required by IT to

maintain individual PCs since software is no longer required on the workstation to print.

Figure 15 – The TEKLYNX SMA program provides access to all updates and upgrades as well as other benefits.

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Conclusion Increasingly stringent requirements are coming from large companies seeking to lower their costs with a

more streamlined supply chain. Government mandates are growing in complexity and scope looking to

increase consumer safety. These two trends put greater and greater pressure on companies to improve

the speed, accuracy, and reliability of their labeling systems.

Often overlooked, labeling systems can have a significant impact on overall operations in many

organizations. If setup and maintained correctly, the labeling system operations should harmonize with

the production flow allowing organization to keep pace with these rising standards and sometimes

lower overall production costs in the process. Problems can arise when these systems are not setup or

maintained correctly. The consequences range from higher than necessary production costs to

expensive downtime.

In our experience, we have found patterns across different customers in different industries. The five

common mistakes detailed above represent some of the more prevalent patterns. Poor labeling

practices are easy to overlook. Some result in slowly degrading productivity as print users spend more

and more time trying to make the system work and less time on value added activities. Other practices

silently expose the business to internal risk of business interruptions caused by system downtime.

External threats of falling out of customer compliance or legal risk from human error can also lurk

without notice until the company finds itself in a crisis.

Efficient Business Integrators is uniquely positioned to help our clients correctly identify opportunities

for improvements in their systems and apply the solutions mentioned above. Our expertise in

operational initiatives such as Lean Manufacturing and TQM allow us to help our clients apply labeling

technology in effectively and affordably.

To find out more about how Efficient Business Integrators can help your organization deploy effective

labeling technology to meet rising requirements and improve overall operations, please contact:

David Klement

Principal

Efficient Business Integrators

DaveK@efficientbi.com

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Copyright ©2012 Efficient Business Integrators All rights reserved

About the EBI Efficient Labeling Ideas Focus Area

For those who want to get the most productivity and leverage technology with labeling systems to improve overall operations from their labeling systems we provide guidance, assistance, and support. Information in the form of blogs and formal articles are provided free of charge to clients and prospective clients. We encourage anyone involved in the labeling community to reach out to us and let us assist you with your unique business challenges.

About Efficient Business Integrators

Efficient Business Integrators is a systems integration company that provides software licensing, implementation services and ongoing support for clients seeking to using technology to improve their operations. We work the top executives to help them to determine what technological resources to deploy, convert those decisions into actions, and deliver the results they expect. Our passion for helping our clients achieve superior and enduring improvements to their organization drives us every day.

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