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Through efficient labeling systems, your manufacturing facility will achieve better production results. These systems also ensure lower error rates and eliminate the need for excessive labor costs.
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You want your business to be successful. And for that, you have to invest in certain areas.
Ideally, your first aim should be to invest in necessary resources and skilled labor. Once you take care of that, the next goal is to invest in technology to improve efficiency. If your business is a part of certain industries, one key piece of equipment that you must bring in is an automated labeling machine.
Industrialists often overlook the importance of fast and accurate labeling. As far as they are concerned, labeling is the final part of the production process. Hence, it is one of the least concerning ones. However, through efficient labeling systems, you can achieve better results in terms of production. It also ensures low error rates and lowers labor costs.
Some industries need automated label printing machines more than others. It becomes extremely difficult to survive in some markets without such systems in place. So in case you are starting your business in one of these sectors or industries, you cannot ensure efficiency without automatic label printing machinery.
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The FMCG Industry and Automated Labeling
According to a report by Allied Market Research, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market is set to reach a global value of more than $15,000 billion by 2025. This is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world. Its products range from home improvement items to health and personal care. Companies like Unilever, Johnson and Johnson, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, and others make millions every month through their FMCG business models.
The whole idea behind FMCG industries is that you have to be fast with your production. Unless you do so, you cannot keep up with people’s demands. Therefore, while the major parts of the manufacturing process are automated, you still need to bring in automated labeling systems to ensure a continuous and thorough production process. The absence of such machinery will hamper your production. And it will also create a backlog. That means while the production might be finished, you cannot send the goods out on their way because of slow labeling.
On top of all that, the diversity of products under the FMCG umbrella is also something to take note of. You need custom labels for each type of product. And you also need to check for authenticity. Doing so manually leads to errors and inefficiency.
Food and Beverage Industry
Food and beverages require both “apply” and “print and apply” labeling machines. Apply-only labels are for the product’s brand and fixed information labeling. Print and apply labels, on the other hand, are for real-time data such as manufacturing date, expiry date, and so on.
For handling these many variations in labeling, food and beverage industries prefer automated labeling machines over manual labor. Unless you want to employ another 10-20 people to do this for you, you too will be better off with such automated systems.
Another way automated labeling can help is by adjusting for the variations in product surface. This means the machinery can deal with all types of products regardless of their length or surface size. This is especially beneficial if your production line has a large variety of products that come in different sizes.
Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Products
The FDA requires manufacturers to label pharmaceuticals and healthcare products with a “drug facts” table. Much like the “nutritional facts” table included with food and beverages, this type of labeling helps customers check for relevance and how best to use the drug. The labels include information related to the active and inactive ingredients in the drugs, their uses, warnings associated with usage, using directions, how to best store the product, and so on.
With automated labeling machinery, the overall process of attaching the labels becomes a lot faster. You have custom labels for each type of drug. And you can also automate the manufacturing and expiration dates. You can also automate digital labeling systems to include the temperature the product was manufactured in.
One of the biggest advantages of automated labeling in pharmaceuticals and healthcare products is accuracy. Since these are mostly used for medical purposes, the information on the products needs to be accurate. Such precision, while maintaining speed and versatility, can only be delivered by automatic labeling machines.
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Plan for Automated Labeling from the Beginning of Your Business
Automating the entire production process is something you would want to do right from the start. And when you do plan it out, make sure you are taking automated labeling into account.