Label inspection - underpinning quality, compliance and cost reduction
In part 2 of this mini blog series, we considered implications of the contractual and compliance requirements your business works within and what the drivers - and solutions - are for ensuring incorrect or defective labels aren't released.
In this final article, we get to the good stuff - why inspecting labels doesn't just ensure print quality and data compliance but also drives down production and labour costs.
Driving down costs, increasing throughput
If your primary goal for bringing label inspection into the production process is driven by quality and compliance, then we have more good news - you'll also drive down production and labour costs, reduce material wastage and increase throughput. And with the right technology in place, those time consuming and costly manual processes your workforce struggles with will also become a thing of the past.
With the accurate visibility and data captured from inspecting printed labels, the best label inspection solution will benefit your operation with:
Real-time updates of business systems e.g Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
Accurate production data and dynamic operational performance metrics reporting
Detailed analysis by product, printer, material, shift, plant location and inspection failure errors
Granular audit trail of activity across all lines and sites
Not forgetting the reason your production managers will embrace label inspection technology; it removes the possibility of delivery rejection and chargebacks as a consequence of incorrectly or poorly printed product identification labels.
Taking a secure, global, cloud based approach
With cloud based technology, all devices can be networked globally to share the same inspection templates and record data to one central global database. This centralised approach enables performance metrics and Microsoft Power BI to analyse large data and help drive efficiency gains.
With the adoption of technology, increased processing power, improvements in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) algorithms, faster IT infrastructure and cloud based solutions, manufacturers now have it within their grasp to control the print process and avoid poorly printed, defective or duplicate labels from being released into the supply chain.
About the author
Mark Worlidge is the CEO and Founder of Perceptor Inspection Technologies Ltd and the Global Product Lead for Perceptor IoT. He has over 25 years experience in selling and supporting 2D DataMatrix verification and complex machine vision solutions. With a wide range of experience in deploying OCR/OCV applications to pharma, medical device and life sciences manufacturing he is well versed in the challenges of reliable printing and inspection solutions.
