Major Printer Manufacturer Doubles Throughput Using Lowry's Automated Labeling Systems
An industry-leading manufacturer of laser and color inkjet printers experienced seasonal spikes in consumer demand. Forty percent of the company’s revenue was generated in the 4th quarter holiday period. Its daily assembly operation was able to maintain a daily steady flow of product packaging and labeling, but was unable to elevate product output when spikes occurred.
Its manual assembly consisted of building cartons, scanning printer serial numbers, and inserting printers into cartons. Printing bar code labels made up of serial number, model number, part number, UPC code, and product description came next, then hand applying one or two labels per carton - depending on the retailer. Up to 30,000 bar code labels were applied each day.
In addition to problems meeting spikes in demand, products and labeling with mismatched serial numbers had to be reworked, bar code labels had to be carefully positioned and affixed by hand, and the quality of outsourced assembly work did not always meet the manufacturer’s standards.
Lowry played a key role in the solution when five fully automated Super Cells were installed to replace the manual assembly process. Cartons are now automatically erected, printers inserted, and units moved along a conveyor that splits into two lines. Two Paragon Print & Apply Labeling Systems are installed on each of the ten lines. The Paragons receive scanned information from a PC, then print and exactly apply a 6 x 7-1/4" bar code label to each carton as it passes the station.
Lowry provided an added benefit to the installation by developing a custom tamp pad to press the label onto the carton. The tamp pad accommodates either the 6 x 7-1/4" label or a 6 x 2" label required by certain retailers, which is applied at a second station. The flexible tamp pad cuts costs by making the labeling equipment universal.
The printer manufacturer has doubled its labeling capacity to 60,000 labels per day, and is now able to keep up with peaks in demand - in-house. Quality has increased since the Paragon Labeling System has a labeling accuracy of +/- 1/16." Plus the process is now error-proofed because labels containing scanned data are immediately applied to each printer carton before it moves to the next station. |
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