While traveling last week to visit a prospect, I was taken
into the label room below (and immediately though that it was a good image for a post!).
Not to long ago, I visited a company with this label room.
Do you or do one of your customers have a room like this in
their operation?
If you or your customers have this type of label room, then
you have an opportunity to reduce costs and increase profitability in the
operation dramatically. In this post, I like to describe three cost reduction/profit
opportunities my customers or I have found by moving to print on demand color
labels.
In my travels selling or deploying print on-demand color
labels, I have seen many companies with a room or cabinets full of preprinted,
prepaid labels that may require an addition step to print variable data. I have heard these companies described as
“two-steppers”. Two-Steppers design,
send proofs, review proofs, purchase, receive and store preprinted labels in
cabinets or rooms. Once they have the
preprinted labels, these companies pick, insert in printers, print variable
data and put-away the preprinted labels back into the label rooms. The two step process of preprinting and then
adding variable data is why these types of companies are called two-steppers.
The problem with a two-step process is that it costs money and
decreases profitability in three key ways!
First, a two-step process increases waste costs. Do you or your customers have trash bins
full of labels?
When you purchase
large minimum-order quantities of labels for each SKU, you risk the possibility
of the labels becoming obsolescent. You
may remember an earlier post covering KBI.
Over the past 18 months, this company had thrown away thousands of
dollars of labels. Now KBI are continuously
improving their operation and reducing their waste costs by moving to print
on-demand color labels: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2012/09/continuous-improvement-with-on-demand.html
Second, a two-step label process takes more time than a
single step process. Jaclo Plumbing went
from cabinets full of labels:
To a print room.
This process not only improved the look of their labels (which
opened up new distribution and increased sales).
But also, Jaclo reduced
labor in their manufacturing plant/warehouse by 1 man-year. Now Jaclo starts with white labels and has
eliminated the process to pick and put away preprinted labels. You can learn more about Jaclo’s story
here: http://pos.epson.com/colorworks/assets/ColorWorks_Manufacturing_SS.pdf
Third, a company
using print on-demand labels can design and print labels at the last possible
moment. Mercury Medical reduced costs,
specifically the costs from new regulatory label requirements, by moving to
print on-demand color labels. By
changing from a two-step to a single-step process, Mercury Medical can redesign
and print new labels with no incremental costs.
This new, more flexible process enabled them to reduce their total label
costs by 67% even though any individual label costs more. http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2012/03/67.html
Lastly, a single step, print on-demand color label process
will reduce other costs; such as errors/mistakes, plate, freight,
administration, receiving, inventory carrying and many other costs that can’t
be easily identified.
Overall, most people would agree that a 1-step is better than a
2-step process. If you have a label room
like the ones pictured in this post, consider moving to print on-demand color
labels. You and the managers who worry
about costs and profitability will be glad you did.
Guy Mikel
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