1. Reducing Production costs, SKUs & Waste Through Efficient Coding & Marking Techniques Jason Remnant Linx Product Manager

2. Todays challengesCustomerSupply Chain Functional Code integrity Durability Internal RequirementsContent driven by:ReliabilityConsumer Marketing LegislationLine Efficiency Ease of process Legislation Regulatory Waste targets 3. Overall Equipment Effectiveness Reducing production costs, stock keeping units and waste through efficient processes can also be captured in the more common terminology of Overall Equipment Effectiveness or (O.E.E.) The 3 most common categories of manufacturing productivity losses are: Availability Performance Quality OEE combines these into one score that provides a complete measure of manufacturing efficiency and effectiveness 4. Todays challenges OEEs six big losses: Breakdowns Setup and adjustments Small stops Reduced Speed Startup rejects Production rejectsAll directly impact production costs 5. Introducing SureLiquids bottling plant The plant bottles fluids, packs, and applies product identification One of the product bottling lines produces around 1500 boxes of product a day 10+ types of different product 50+ types of different labels 6. SureLiquids the teamBen Plant Manager .And you guessed it Its going to be a bad day! Shaun OperatorJohn Operator 7. A possible day in SureLiquids bottling plant 08:00 Ben, the plant manager arrives and starts the equipment up Shaun checks the worksheet for the day and selects the label stock He then customises the label stock appropriately for the boxes with thermal transfer label printer 8. A possible day in SureLiquids bottling plant 08:30 The labels are passed through to John in the warehouse John loads them into his label dispenser 08:35 Production begins and boxes start to arrive in the warehouse John starts labelling his boxes 9. A possible day in SureLiquids bottling plant 10:35 Ben identifies that two pallets have been completed with the wrong labels which is nearly 228 boxes incorrectly labelled 10:40 Mark has to get the mislabelled product down from the rack 10. A possible day in SureLiquids bottling plant 10:40 Ben gets Shaun to reprint another 228 labels 11:00 John manually applies correct labels over the old ones 11:30 Ben and the team can get back to normal production 11. A possible day in SureLiquids bottling plant 14:30 Ben receives an urgent priority order for a different fluid Ben pulls Shaun away to print new labels Shaun goes off and collects new label stock for the new product and again uses the thermal transfer label printer 15:05 Ben is able to switch production over to the new product 12. A possible day in SureLiquids bottling plant 17:35 Shutdown and cleanup 225m of label backing waste 32 labels from setup disposed of Team earned 1hr of O.T. 13. A possible day in SureLiquids bottling plant Johns end of day management report 10 minutes of fork lift support 228 new labels printed 30 minutes of additional label printing 1 man hour of manual re-labelling 14. SureLiquids Efficiency, Waste & SKUs SureLiquids clearly have opportunities for improving: Efficiency Waste reduction Stock keeping unit reduction Linx would propose that SureLiquids use a direct printing solution, rather than label print and apply solution. Label print compared to direct printing solutions for boxes and cases. 15. Label Print and Apply (LPA) Not a continuous technology, adding consumables means stopping printing: Requires replacement ribbons Requires label stock Thermal printer heads need replacing: SureLiquids replace 4 per year 100s per replacement To try and manage SKUs, multiple languages were combined on the label by using a small font; Print quality rapidly deteriorates as thermal printer heads age Difficult for customer to read 16. Direct printing Can be a continuous technology, adding consumables whilst printing; Just add ink No printhead replacements: Little service & downtime Little associated costs Print quality can be maintained automatically Product identification updated on an as-required basis in seconds Print what you need when you need it minimise SKUs. 17. What about you? Have you or your company considered moving away from a label print and apply product identification process, to a direct print identification process? Yes, we did it and get the benefits from the change Yes, we did it but are not getting the benefits Yes, but its not appropriate for us No, we have not but may consider it in the future No, we have no appropriate interest Please select your answer from the poll 18. Improving Efficiency, Reducing SKUs & Waste Reducing process complexity Direct print onto cases or boxes Direct printing Removes labels Removes label applicator Reduces changeover times Reduces waste 19. Improving Efficiency, Reducing SKUs & Waste Error-free codingScanning the products barcode selects the design format and/or printed information from a database No user input or selection required. Removes risk of typing errors, incorrect data and look-up errors. Can cross reference against production log to ensure all is correct 20. Improving Efficiency, Reducing SKUs & Waste Removing errors Product name pulled from database from fluid referenceBarcodes linked to other data fields and change appropriatelyGraphics/warning logos automatically chosen from database and display as appropriateWarning text auto filled appropriate to Associated additional information updated productUse by date automatically calculated with offset rule 21. Improving Efficiency, Reducing SKUs & Waste Reduce label SKUs The text in this box is automatically filled and appropriate for this product and does not need to be squeezed in to allow for different languagesThis area may contain more text and so the message can be lengthened in order to accept. It does not require the need to shrink the font, making it still readable for the customer. More words and text and information that the other exampleRapidly customise text upon demand Label size limits message content Direct print provides ability to enlarge the print area No requirement for different or excessive label sizes Clever printer software using message templates rather than multiple message designs 22. Improving SureLiquids Efficiency Availability downtime: Recovery from coding errors diversion of resource Poor ability to react to sudden production demands or changes Label production is batch produced Performance slow cycles: Manual label application bottle-necks process Thermal label printer non continuous technology Quality: Coding errors, waste labels, potential reject batches from customer with potential fines 23. 6 big losses of LPA versus direct printing Big LossesCurrentOptimisedBreakdown opportunitiesLabel printer, label applicatorDirect printer onlySetup & adjustmentManual, label content, printing and positioningDigitally adjustSmall stop causesLabel printer consumable None changes, label changes & operator breaksReduced speedManual process = 12 boxes/min maximumDirect printer = 60 boxes per minute maximumStartup rejects30 labelsNoneProduction rejects due to Potentially (228 boxes) setupNone 24. How efficient are your coding & marking techniques? Linx has a wide range of direct, digital, coding and marking solutions designed for reducing production costs Please chat now or contact us if you would like to know more about how and where direct printing might be able to help your business Thank you for listening, please ask questions!