Bob Trebilcock

Can printers boost your productivity?
July 24, 2008

When it comes to materials handling and information handling in the plant or DC, it’s all about productivity. If a solution doesn’t pay for itself by allowing you to do more with less, what’s the point?

So I was intrigued when Tom Roth and Brian Schulte, two marketing directors from Intermec (www.intermec.com) suggested that the right bar code label printer can lead to productivity gains in manufacturing and distribution environments.

Really? “I will admit that at the highest level, our customers don’t wake up in the morning and think about printer and bar code solutions,” Roth says. “But, they do think about reducing downtime in their facilities, and they are interested in reducing IT complexity. That’s where new printer solutions, including wireless printing which is still emerging, can play a role.”

Schulte and Roth offered several examples of how printing and printing solutions can lead to productivity gains in a facility.

Helping labor meet productivity goals.

“A lot of companies are focused on productivity because of the turnover they’re seeing in labor,” says Schulte. “But the bar is also being raised by economic challenges and new customer requirements that put a premium on productivity.” Bar code systems improve productivity by automating some tasks and providing the data to efficiently direct the work on the floor.

Coping with the high cost of energy.

High energy and transportation costs are putting pressure on profitability. One trend Roth and Schulte are seeing is a re-evaluation of sourcing and manufacturing strategies currently in place. “A lot of companies are rethinking their supply chains and bringing activities closer to home,” says Schulte. At the same time, they are also looking to technology to help them be more productive in their operations. “We expected that technology spending would be reduced, and we’re not seeing that,” says Roth. Bar code labeling and printing fits in with that strategy.

Eliminating non-value-added steps.

One goal of automated materials handling is to eliminate an unnecessary touches. The same idea applies to bar code label printing, especially from a central location, which means that workers spend a lot of non-productive time walking to and from printers, waiting for labels or coping with equipment downtime. “There are incremental things a company can do if they’re already printing bar code labels to increase productivity,” says Schulte. “Installing wireless printers, for instance, allows you to quickly relocate printers to print labels on demand at different locations.”

Decreasing downtime.

Most companies are looking for ways to improve the reliability of their automated systems while decreasing the complexity of their IT departments. Using networked printers allows an IT department to push out a software upgrade to the line from a central location, rather than upgrade printers individually, and to monitor the performance of printers from a central location. “If the system sees that one printer is using ribbons faster than another, you can do things with software to make sure that productivity isn’t slowed,” says Roth. 

Posted by Bob Trebilcock on July 24, 2008 | Comments (0)