Labels West Tracks Job Production with CheckMate
- Published: August 01, 2012
REDMOND, WA | Labels West, Woodinville, WA, has been in business since 1978 and specializes in the production of self adhesive labels used primarily for product packaging. The industries it serves include food and beverage, wine, and personal care. The company is known for high quality, multicolor labeling. In a soft economy, it was looking for ways to cut costs without impacting its ability to serve customers.
There are hundreds of individual jobs processing through the Labels West plant at any one time. Each job involves several steps, and each step takes place in a unique location with the facility. Critical documents (drawing and specifications, for example) are housed in a small job folder that travels through the production process. Its employees were spending hours a week searching for these folders when information needed to be added or modified.
Labels West began researching job tracking solutions that use bar code technology to track jobs. The company purchased the CheckMate tracking system from Dynamic Systems Inc. to solve its problem and to automate the job tracking process. It uses the unlimited user version of the software running on individual PCs on the production floor. A Honeywell Voyager corded scanner is attached to the PCs for increased accuracy and speed.
Currently about 25 employees actively use the software. A bar code is printed on the job and is scanned as it moves into a new location. Management is able to quickly locate the job folders using the “search” function of the software. This simple solution is saving 20 hr/wk in labor for the company, which equates to more than $15,000 annually. The software was paid for in less than 3 months.
Besides the labor cost savings, CheckMate’s reporting allows Labels West to manage job flow—it now knows where a job is and how long it’s been there. It eliminates the need for employees to interrupt each other, thus slowing down production. And knowing the exact location of a job increases its customers’ satisfaction. If a customer wants to know the status of a job, the answer is the click of a button away.
“I would highly recommend this solution. It does exactly what it is supposed to do,” says John Shanley, owner. “We are very pleased with CheckMate. It installed easily, is stable, and the technical support is excellent.”
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