International Label and Kitting Capabilities Speed Up the Manufacturing Production Line

As nearly every manufacturer can attest, doing business internationally is a given in today’s global marketplace. Rarely can manufacturers survive by merely marketing and selling their products state-side—consumers and other businesses from across the globe demand their attention, as well as their products. And while the decision of a manufacturer to expand its operations to a global scale is a simple one, the requirements to successfully and efficiently do so are many.

For example, think about the multiple warning labels and technical literature which go along with each product that is now being manufactured for users in non-English speaking countries. With global growth comes the need for multi-lingual printed production parts, along with the need to warehouse and inventory not only the vast quantity of those parts that are printed in English, but also the same number of parts for each additional language. In other words, to go international, a manufacturer is wise to engage the services of a sound printed production parts management company.

Disparate Printed Parts Slow the Production Line
An excellent example of this scenario can be found with a well-established global manufacturer of production and medical technology. With operations in 26 countries and sales to an even broader international customer base, the company’s five primary business fields include machine tools, power tools, laser technology, electronics and medical technology. Its core business is flexible and precise sheet metal processing, including punching and forming, laser processing and bending.

Taking into account the highly intricate and often-times complicated equipment that it produces for these worldwide markets, clear and compliant safety labeling is a must. To that point, the company’s manufacturing facilities were dealing with dozens of labels in each of 30 different languages, or approximately 1,200 multilingual production parts.

Early in 2007, Standard Register contacted this manufacturer about the impending ANSI standards changes that would affect its 1,200 production parts. Company representatives were concerned, as compliance is a must for their operations in order to assure user and customer safety and satisfaction.

Following an initial discussion, the Standard Register account team realized an additional issue that hampered the company’s production lines—lack of label and printed production parts management. According to the manufacturer, it would oftentimes take a line worker anywhere from 15-30 minutes to track down and apply approximately 30-40 labels for any given product, too much time in today’s fast-paced manufacturing environment.

Multilingual Kitting and Eliminating Inventory
The SR team determined that what the company needed was kitted labels available in the various languages to which they supply product. To address this, SR presented a sample label kit completed for another non-competing SR customer, Carrier. Add to this the company’s capability to translate into multiple languages, and the manufacturer was sold on Standard Register. They were so happy with SR’s capabilities that cost became a non-issue. They were only concerned with Lean Manufacturing initiatives and process improvement, both of which are areas where SR has proven success.

The company moved to a completely digital-on-demand platform, keeping no printed production parts inventory on the shelves. The SR kitting solution, which includes versions in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese, has helped its line workers go from 15-30 minutes to find and apply labels to a mere 30 seconds.

In addition, with the current success of the SR Manufacturing Parts Solutions program with this manufacturer, they have expressed future interest in additional SR offerings, including technical training and product literature.

If you’d like more information on how your company can save bottom-line dollars while decreasing manpower hours through kitting and translation services, contact Standard Register today.