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Tag: Auto ID Labelling

Tosca Partners with Avery Dennison to Reduce Emissions

Posted on by David Priestman

Tosca has partnered with Avery Dennison, a global materials science company, to support its transition to reusable plastic pallets and reduce CO2 emissions across its European supply chain. By adopting Tosca’s innovative pooling model, the collaboration has delivered significant operational efficiencies while cutting nearly 500 tons of CO2 in just one year. This partnership highlights Tosca’s sustainable packaging solutions which drive supply chain efficiency while reducing environmental impact.

The Challenge: Scalable, Sustainable Solutions

Tosca were pleased to support Avery Dennison in their pursuit of a scalable, efficient solution to meet the growing demand for plastic pallets, while aligning with their strong commitment to sustainability. This includes their goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Avery Dennison recognised the need to optimise operations due to increasing demand for wooden pallets, especially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. By partnering with Tosca, a leader in sustainable packaging and supply chain solutions, they found the solution.

Reusable Plastic Pallets

Tosca has provided the solution to Avery Dennison’s challenge with its durable, reusable L1 plastic pallets, designed to enhance efficiency, reduce waste, and minimise environmental impact. Initially, Avery Dennison aimed to replace their own pallets with a more efficient solution to meet growing demand. This quickly expanded to switching much of their supply chain to Tosca’s plastic pallets.

A key challenge has been convincing Avery Dennison’s customers to accept goods on plastic pallets, as more participation would optimise logistics and enhance sustainability. Both sales teams worked together to demonstrate the operational and environmental benefits of this choice. The official partnership began in 2022, and Tosca’s plastic pallets are now used in 13 Avery Dennison factories and distribution centres, shipping to over 400 customer locations across Europe.

Operational Benefits and Sustainability Gains

The partnership between Tosca and Avery Dennison enhanced efficiency and scalability by supporting the growing demand for plastic pallets, addressing availability issues and providing a more cost effective, reliable alternative to wooden pallets post Covid-19. In addition, Tosca’s reusable plastic pallets offer cleaner, more hygienic solutions for their warehouses. These improvements align with the company’s goal of enhancing operational efficiency while reducing its carbon footprint.

In 2023, 40% of Avery Dennison’s Euro-sized pallets had been converted to plastic, and the company already achieved nearly 500 tonnes of CO2 emissions saved annually — exceeding initial estimates.

Due to the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Avery Dennison is rethinking their transport and sales packaging, which increasingly focuses on reuse and circularity. “Our focus is on the recyclability and circularity of our packaging. By partnering with Tosca, we are moving in the right direction,” said Violeta Gómez Valdivieso, Central Packaging Leader at Avery Dennison. “For example, the PPWR requires that at least 40% of transport or sales packaging be reusable by 2030, and Tosca’s plastic pallets meet these requirements.”

A Strong Sustainability Partnership

Looking ahead, Avery Dennison plans to continue to transition to plastic pallets, with Tosca’s pooling system playing a critical role in achieving both greater efficiency and sustainability in their supply chain. The possibility to use the already integrated RFID tags on Tosca’s plastic pallets for tracking opens improved traceability capabilities and streamlined order management, bringing even greater potential operational benefits in the future.

“At Tosca, we work side by side with our customers in long-term partnerships, and our successful collaboration with Avery Dennison is the perfect example of this. Both companies strongly believe in the concept of continuing the loop,” said Felix Van Ouytsel, Sales Director UK/Ireland at Tosca. The partnership between Tosca and Avery Dennison shows how collaboration can drive significant sustainability advancements, setting a benchmark for the industry.

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Avery Dennison saves on supply chain packaging

 

Industry Calls for Greater Connection Across Global Supply Chains

Posted on by David Priestman

90% of industry professionals say there is an increased need for connection and collaboration across the global supply chain, supported by the transformative power of cloud technology, to improve efficiency, ensure compliance, avoid fines, and reduce overall costs, according to research released today by Loftware. This comes at a time when executives are focused on building more resilient, transparent, and agile supply chains to navigate disruptions and shifting consumer demands.

The global survey, which draws on insights from over 400 supply chain professionals across industries in 55 countries, found that 84% of companies believe it would be beneficial to join an ecosystem where supply chain partners share access, data, and standards to improve efficiency, ensure compliance, and reduce overall costs. Additionally, nearly three-quarters of respondents said the Cloud offers a more flexible and agile framework for streamlining labeling access for trading partners, highlighting the ongoing importance of digital transformation.

“Today’s supply chains are more global and complex, while expectations from business and consumers have increased. This has led to a greater need for connection and collaboration as companies embrace digital transformation to streamline interactions and ensure compliance with suppliers, customers, and their own facilities across the enterprise,” said Josh Roffman, EVP of Marketing at Loftware.

One significant issue for today’s global supply chain lies in maintaining compliance. Customers report continued struggles with streamlining the receipt of inbound goods, resulting in mislabelling and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. Loftware’s research illustrates the scale of this issue, with 70% of $1 billion+ companies being forced to relabel inbound goods from suppliers and partners, a resource-intensive and costly process. However, 77% of respondents said they believe providing controlled access to labelling would help to solve this issue. Leveraging a connected network that enables publishers and subscribers to gain access to standards, data, labels, and rules can ensure that inbound goods are properly labeled.

The Loftware report also revealed that an increasing number of companies are exploring new ways to guarantee their products, shipments, and data are protected as they travel through today’s global supply chain. As illustrated in Loftware’s survey, 78% of professionals said they believe artificial intelligence can be useful in analyzing data to identify counterfeit goods, while 59% say their company is currently using serialization technology to solve supply chain challenges.

Facilitating digital transparency is a vital step in creating resilient and safer supply chains, so it’s no surprise that 68% flagged cloud technology as playing a crucial role in improving track and trace across their operations. Using cloud technology, digital traceability helps companies to ensure sustainable sourcing, protect consumers, streamline the location of inventory, guarantee on-time delivery to market, and address the growing issue of counterfeiting.

Being able to trace products both upstream and downstream is also vital for managing the product lifecycle and ensuring sustainable sourcing. Digital Product Passports (DPPs) will be key to achieving this. By scanning a product’s digital passport, stakeholders can access information about its origin, ingredients, sustainability practices, and more, enabling them to make more informed choices. According to this research, 54% say DPPs already play a significant role in enhancing supply chain transparency and sustainability within their industry, while 63% expect DPPs to be more widely adopted within the next 3 years.

For more information about the trends identified by Loftware, access the full report here.

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58% of Warehouse Leaders Plan to Deploy RFID by 2028

Posted on by David Priestman

Zebra Technologies Corporation today released the findings of its 2023 Global Warehousing Study, which confirmed 58% of warehouse decision-makers plan to deploy radio frequency identification (RFID) technology by 2028 which will help increase inventory visibility and reduce out-of-stocks.

Over the next five years, a majority of warehouse decision-makers plan to deploy fixed, passive or handheld RFID readers and fixed industrial scanning solutions that can better track assets, workers and goods throughout the warehouse environment. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the invention of RFID which has become a problem-solving tool for front-line workers in warehouses and other industries.

Accelerating Modernization to Manage Returns

The survey showed 74% of European warehouse decision-makers (73% globally) have or will be accelerating timelines of modernization projects. This should help with returns management which climbed to the top operational challenge cited by nearly half of warehouse decision-makers surveyed—an increase of 10 percentage points year-over-year. For Europe that figure is 43%, a 12 percentage point increase year-over-year.

“The significant growth of returns aligns with explosive e-fulfilment growth over the last several years, and it is a mandate for change across every part of the supply chain,” said Andre Luecht, Global Strategy Lead for Transportation, Logistics and Warehouse, Zebra Technologies. “This means warehouse leaders must modernize their operations with technology solutions to handle returns and increase agility, inventory visibility and demand forecasting in order to improve efficiency and make better decisions in real time.”

A majority of warehouse decision-makers (76%) say they are under pressure to improve performance while adjusting to shifting consumer ecommerce demands. Inaccurate inventory and out-of-stocks continue to significantly challenge productivity according to nearly 80% of warehouse associates and decision-makers. In fact, both groups — 82% of associates and 76% of decision-makers — acknowledge they need better inventory management tools to achieve better accuracy and determine availability. And a significant 94% of European decision-makers (91% globally) are addressing this need, citing plans to invest in technology to increase visibility across the supply chain by 2028.

Optimizing Operations to Increase Visibility

Warehouse decision-makers are also augmenting their front-line workers by automating their warehouses to ultimately optimize their operations and increase their inventory visibility. According to a recent study by Interact Analysis, despite a recent slowdown in demand for automation projects (in part due to a reduction in warehousing construction), this demand is expected to return to growth in 2024.

The Zebra study found that 69% of warehouse decision-makers already have or are planning to automate workflows by 2024 to support warehouse associates and shift them toward more customer-centric, high-value tasks. Over half of warehouse decision-makers believe automation increases worker efficiency and productivity by reducing manual picking, order errors and cycle time. Meanwhile, eight in ten warehouse associates agree using more technology and automation helps them meet or exceed productivity goals.

Complementing the rise in productivity, eight in ten warehouse associates surveyed also feel more valued when their employers provide them with technology and automation tools to help them work. Similarly, 88% of warehouse decision-makers say adding warehouse technologies, including devices and robotics, attract and retain employees which is extremely important during labour shortages. More than half of the surveyed decision-makers plan to implement machine learning (52%) and predictive analytics (59%) software solutions in their facilities by 2028.

Prioritizing Sustainability in Decision-Making

Warehouse decision-makers are choosing solutions based on their ability to help them build sustainable operations, driven largely by regulations, energy costs or shortages along with customer, worker and investor expectations. For example, 78% of European warehouse decision-makers (77% globally) are focused on reducing emissions and waste while eight in ten warehouse decision-makers say it’s important their warehouse technology solutions maximize battery life.

Other sustainable elements decision-makers prioritize today include ensuring accurate mobile device swap-out time, connecting to energy monitoring software to maximize efficiency, offering buy-back and certified refurbishment/circular economy programs, and the use of reusable and recyclable materials. Beyond their own operations, 81% of warehouse decision-makers also say it’s important that technology vendors have sustainability measures in place for running their businesses.

Brother Expect Auto-ID Labelling Sales Rise

Posted on by David Priestman

Business and technology solutions provider Brother UK is expecting to double sales of its professional label printers over the next 12 months, on the back of significant investment to strengthen its proposition and growing market demand.

Over the last year, Brother UK has partnered with major Auto-ID resellers and vendors in the UK, as well as specialist partners BarcodeGenie and Planglow, to create new routes to market and develop tailored solutions for the retail and food hygiene markets respectively.

The technology provider has also upgraded two of its most popular label printing lines – the TD-2000 and the QL – to improve connectivity and security, introduce an auto-sleep mode as default to reduce operators’ energy use, and boost manufacturing capacity to service higher demand.

The business says that an increasing demand for thermal labelling devices across retail, supply chain and hospitality will also help to drive the growth as more firms look to digitise and unlock new operational efficiencies. Forecasts from market research consultancy VDC reveal that the UK market for thermal labelling devices is set to grow by 44% to $137.9m by 2026, compared to 2021.

Ged Cairns (pictured), head of SPS business category at Brother UK, said: “We have built a strong proposition to take advantage of a buoyant market as more firms, specifically across supply chain, retail and hospitality, digitise their day-to-day operations. Labelling systems form a central part of those functions and we have the right range of devices, from our mobile RJ series to the TJ desktop range for high-volume label printing, to support reseller partners in delivering the products and solutions that their customers need. Combining our updated product range, new routes to market, focus on tech integration and customer support, from industry-leading warranties to on-site visits and next-day replacements, we are positioned well to grow quickly.”

Over 100 years of innovation have gone into making Brother the global business solutions provider that it is today. Founded in Japan in 1908, and now operating in 44 countries around the world, Brother has continually adapted to thrive in an ever-changing marketplace. From managed print services through to printers and scanners, Brother’s products and services are designed to increase efficiency, boost productivity and encourage collaboration in the workplace.

Auto ID Labelling Limits Downtime

Posted on by David Priestman

The holiday season may be over, but with transport and logistics businesses shouldering the brunt of Christmas chaos, Gary Morris (pictured), Senior End User Client Manager for Transport and Logistics at Brother UK, reflects on the priorities firms are focusing on to shore-up their labelling and Auto-ID systems as they begin to navigate 2023.

Logistics leaders faced a tough end to 2022, as they kept customers satisfied through one of the most demanding delivery fulfilment periods. Firms faced high demand while sector capacity was sapped by perennial skills shortages alongside strike action in the last half of the year. In such arduous conditions, sub-optimal tech anywhere in their operation is the last thing logistics leaders need. Reliable auto-ID systems are essential to keep operations running smoothly and efficiently to help firms maximise throughput and prevent backlogs.

But research shows that inefficient labelling systems are creating unnecessary burdens. More than 60% of firms experience at least a week of downtime every year due to poor-quality labelling – one in seven experience a month or more of lost time. To tackle this, we’re seeing businesses set three core priorities when it comes to labelling.

Create labels that are clear and scannable

A major issue firms are reporting is problems with delivering parcels due to unreadable barcodes. More than half of companies (53%) in our research estimate that this is costing them between £1,000 to £3,000 per year as businesses pay out to reprocess and redispatch goods.

Labelling systems with high resolutions equipped with the best matched media and ribbons, ensure barcodes are always clear and readable. A good portable label printer can deliver a 200dpi resolution, while desktop or industrial label printers will often provide firms with the best resolution for the sharpest print outs, offering 300dpi – or even up to 600dpi. A trusted technology supplier will also be able to advise the best matched media to the hardware, making sure firms are using the right labels or the best label and ribbon combination.

Ensure seamless integration

We know that many businesses (62%) across the sector are looking to improve the integration across their labelling systems to boost their productivity and find new efficiencies. The result is a focus on hardware and software that is designed with integration in mind and can easily connect with existing systems and those made by other vendors and suppliers.

So, the focus is on devices that feature industry mainstays such as SAP, and printer command languages including ZPL2 emulation, to support seamless integration. This will help to promote change for those that may not want to re-invent their operational wheel. But for those that do, a supporting vendor can advise on how firms can gain efficiency in their printer workflows to fit within their operation, including products designed with the software and system integration businesses desire.

Get access to reliable repair services

Naturally, transport and logistics operations never stop, so broken tech creates huge headaches. And when problems do occur, they need access to emergency repair services and replacements so they can get their operations back up and running. Services like our optional Brother ONSITE – a next day maintenance service for our TJ range of industrial label printers – are in high demand and a three-year warranty on equipment, sometimes with extensions of up to four or five years, is now seen as the expected standard.

Labelling that delivers

There is little time to pause for thought in a sector that never stops, but the productivity, reliability and connectivity of labelling systems should never be overlooked. There are often significant gains that can be made that can support broader business goals, from increasing capacity to cutting cost. Partnering with a supplier that takes the time to make sure every line, delivery note and warehouse location label is printed with precision, can help firms to concentrate on their operations, while minimising the downtime they can seldom afford.

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