FEATURE AUTOMATION
SIEMENS STANDARDISES LABELLING WITH REAL-TIME CLOUD SOLUTION
document management system while a small number of others host the NiceLabel integration system. All labels that connected to the bill of
materials (BOM), such as product identification labels, are initially designed using Siemens’ CAD software, NX Design and stored in Teamcenter, Siemens’ PLM system. NX Design also creates an XML file that is imported into the NiceLabel label designer, with 70 per cent of label design work completed before any design work is started in the NiceLabel designer. All non BOM-related labels are designed using the NiceLabel label designer, with its intuitive interface enabling business users to create and change labels without IT assistance and deploy label templates across factories. With the introduction of universal label
by Ken Moir, VP marketing, NiceLabel F
rom demand variability to supply chain constraints, increased
compliance, global competition and heightened customer expectations, manufacturers are increasingly looking to technology to reduce costs and standardise processes. A key part of operations, the labelling
process is often overlooked in the drive towards digitisation. Yet, as an essential part of the supply chain process, digitised labelling offers significant potential to address common challenges such as mislabelling and inaccuracies, as well as the high costs associated with the use of disparate and fragmented software and printers. A cloud solution enables organisations
with even the most complex international operations to centralise and control the process more efficiently and cost-effectively, regardless of location. It allows labels to be produced, changed or updated from a web browser and accessed whenever or wherever required. Equipped with a modernised, centralised,
cloud-based labelling system, businesses frequently discover important benefits associated with real-time labelling, including improved security, compliance and traceability in label design, as well as increased agility, quality, and collaboration along the supply chain.
CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT Responsible for IT systems, infrastructure and architecture, Siemens’ Manufacturing Operations Service
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Delivery department’s overarching objective is to provide systems and services that perform in the most standardised and efficient way possible. On-demand label printing in the
international operation’s factories was a key area identified by the team as having the potential to benefit from standardisation. However, its environment made this objective challenging, with multiple labelling solutions and a wide range of label and office printers at each factory creating a fragmented landscape. The fact that Siemens needs to
produce labels in multiple languages was also a challenge for label printing as existing solutions could not consistently handle Chinese characters; in some instances, designers had to transform them into pictures. Maintaining around 250 such images, as well as a variety of hard-coded layouts, put a heavy burden on the IT department, and in the event of a change request hundreds may have to be altered.
UNIFYING SOLUTION To address the challenges of its complex environment and achieve the high level of standardisation and flexibility it sought, Siemens implemented the NiceLabel label management system to integrate with its PLM, MES and ERP systems, creating a standardised label production and printing set-up for its Motion Control factories. Deployed on a private Siemens Cloud, a single server hosts the NiceLabel
SEPTEMBER 2019 | MATERIALS HANDLING & LOGISTICS
Equipped with a modernised, centralised, cloud-based labelling system, businesses frequently discover important benefits associated with real-time labelling
templates that can be printed from any business system, the addition of the NiceLabel solution has meant Siemens now maintains fewer template variations, processes fewer change requests and enjoys improved label consistency and compliance, while integration with other business systems improved productivity. Speed too has been a major benefit;
under the legacy integration, labels could take eight seconds to print - this is now down to just 300 milliseconds. Free from the burden of supporting multiple printers, applying business rules and logic using the label management system’s Automation module has enabled the Service Delivery group to maximise the speed of implementation, while minimising deployment costs.
GLOBAL POSSIBILITIES Initially deployed as a pilot, the scalability of the NiceLabel solution saw it incorporated as the key component of a labelling-as-a-service solution and rolled out across six countries, with further expansion in the pipeline. Identified as a digital lighthouse
service by Siemens Production and Logistics Excellence group, what began as a solution to solve a local problem has since been re-architected, scaled and packaged as a model service, bringing standardisation to label production and printing across Siemens’ vast manufacturing operations, unlocking time and cost-saving business efficiencies and offering significant potential for deployment at a global level.
NiceLabel
www.nicelabel.com / MATERIALSHANDLINGLOGISTICS
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