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BARCODING, LABELLING & PACKAGING A FOCUS ON QUALITY


Quality control processes can further enhance sustainability. Quality control has been part of the labelling processes for at least two decades. In recent times, it has often used a process known as ‘six eyes’, where three individuals manually scrutinise labels to help reduce the chance of labelling errors. Six eyes is a well-established approach but it is still essentially manual and therefore there is a risk that errors will occur. What’s different today is that quality control is increasingly being digitised – enabling organisations to achieve labelling efficiency and quality at the same time. With regard to sustainability, the key aspect of this is that mislabelling can often lead to issues with products and that can result in an unsustainable need to quarantine and re-label product or packaging. If car lights are mislabelled for example, they may then be fixed to the wrong segment of the vehicle. One of the major car brands was temporarily blocked by Chinese customs due to missing and incorrect labels on more than 1,500 of its vehicles.


ROBOTS IMPROVED ACCURACY = BETTER SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability and environmental considerations are strongly impacting the market, with consumers pushing brands to improve their efforts in these areas. Wasting produce and other perishable goods due to labelling errors can put reputations at risk. Correct labelling makes supply chains more sustainable with no incorrectly labelled products being wrongly shipped and returned or scrapped as waste. This can be solved with the accuracy of modern label management systems that ensure partners across the supply chain can access and apply the right labels every time, helping brands keep their carbon footprints to a minimum.


Across many areas of the economy, efficiently integrating different elements of the labelling process is often key in delivering high levels of sustainability. The food and perishable goods industry provides a great example of this due to the high level of food wastage caused by label data entry errors. This sector makes extensive use of direct marking printers to place the expiry date and batch number on food products. This information is typically entered via what is called a human machine interface (HMI). It is an inherently manual process involving human input into a touch-screen device and therefore can be error-prone, increasing the likelihood of printing errors such as the wrong best before date or LOT. Mistakes are frequent and products, from vegetables and meat to fruit, milk and juices, often need to be quarantined or even scrapped. It can also result in re-working product, customers rejecting product, lost sales or even lost business. If products are rejected, a company’s competitors could fill the store shelves. Many times, perishable items are written off and throwing away large quantities of food and drink has considerable sustainability and environmental impacts. Many organisations don’t integrate direct marking devices with business systems because it is seen as too complex. Each location may use a different method for integration, making standardisation and support a challenge. Various local production sites might also choose different levels of integration and even introduce manual data entry on standalone systems. Moving forward, efforts are being made to make this process more environmentally friendly by integrating direct marking printers with organisations’ broad Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), effectively digitising them and moving them into the overall operational workflow.


AVOIDING RECALLS


The FDA recorded over 1,600 food/cosmetic recalls identified as Class 1 or Class 2 in 2019 – meaning consumption of the product can lead to anything from temporary or reversible adverse health consequences to death. Some of these products were recalled due to contamination; however, many well regarded brands issued recalls to mitigate potentially life-threatening cases of mislabelled products.


In addition to these immediate safety hazards, the food and beverage industry is also under pressure of ever stricter regulation on allergen and nutritional labelling. There is also a heightened focus on sustainability placing a greater emphasis on clearly labelling the source of products, and many medium and large-scale manufacturers have faced integration challenges during mergers and acquisitions. Today’s consumers demand better allergen, nutrition and sourcing data; label regulations are constantly shifting; and the competition has never been fiercer. With such a long list of issues to overcome, the need for food and beverage companies to adopt the most effective processes to ensure labels are accurate, available and compliant has never been greater.


LOOKING AHEAD


While historically, labelling has often been carried out using unsustainable manual processes, that is changing rapidly as digitised labelling processes become much more established. The latest centralised label management systems especially when in the cloud, drive efficiencies and help reduce the environmental impact and resource-heavy nature of traditional manual labelling. Digitised quality control can also help boost productivity as can integrating printing within a wider ERP system. Far from a pipedream, sustainable label printing is now increasingly achievable and here to stay.


NiceLabel www.nicelabel.com


FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS | NOVEMBER 2020 23


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