Industry Calls for Greater Connection Across Global Supply Chains

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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eBook: Upgrade Manual Labelling to Automatic

Logistics Business, in association with Toshiba TEC, have produced a new digital issue / eBook about labelling machines in the warehouse, featuring a new machine that replaces manual labelling operations with an automatic process. In this 6-page special, Editor Peter MacLeod interviews Toshiba TEC‘s European Products and Solutions Manager, Mike Keane, about the APLEX product and application.

Read the eBook here now

Whilst the technical specification of Toshiba Tec’s APLEX industrial labelling applicator speaks volumes, there is no-one better placed to take us for an access-all-areas tour of its capabilities than Mike Keane, a 35-year barcode and label printing veteran of the company.

Label smarter

“We’ve been there from the start when the industry first started doing location coding in warehousing and distribution, and over the last 35 years we’ve been supporting customers to do this with our technology. It is now moving to remote connectivity, with more and more systems being able to interact with the devices to provide the information. The devices themselves then have become increasingly clever to understand things like different languages and understanding data from different systems.”

Manual labelling to automatic

APLEX covers a wide array of today’s standard applications using a 4-inch wide printhead. It can apply up to 30 labels per minute. For carton labeling, 30 per minute is a high production level. So, at the end of the production line, where things are being packed into boxes, APLEX will cover most applications. The solution is also highly suitable for pallet labeling applications with a throughput of no more than two pallets per minute.

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Brother UK Opens New Market Opportunity

Business technology solutions provider Brother UK has partnered with ECS Global to help the business better support its customers across retail, healthcare, transport and logistics. The partnership, which launched in October 2023, will see ECS Global make the full Brother print portfolio available to the company’s existing and prospective customers.

The agreement covers the Brother PJ range of mobile printers and RJ range of rugged portable devices, alongside the TD line of desktop labelling printers and TJ industrial printer range.
ECS Global, which works with 40,000 clients across 20 time zones, provides an innovative cloud-based media communication suite that helps businesses manage all of their communication channels, from impactful and colourful point of sale, all formats of digital signage, and interactive media displays, through one design suite.

The partners say that the breadth of Brother’s product range, from mobile and desktop to industrial print devices, will enable ECS customers to unlock efficiencies in consumables across their operations without having to compromise on their print hardware.

The new partnership follows the announcement that Brother UK is aiming to double sales across its specialist printing services (SPS) business, which supplies industrial, desktop and mobile printers used for everything from food safety labelling to Auto-ID in warehousing.

Market Opportunity

Over the last two years, 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.

Ged Cairns (pictured), head of SPS business category at Brother UK, said: “There is growing demand among businesses across supply chain, retail and hospitality to digitise their day-to-day operations and we have built a strong product proposition to take advantage of this buoyant market.

“Our new partnership with ECS Global will serve to strengthen our position and provide clients with the broadest range of print devices available from a single vendor. In addition to consistent device management and deployment tools, businesses will benefit from simplifying their consumables ordering, service, support and user training. The firm has a significant footprint in the UK and has seamlessly deployed our solutions with customers already, so we’re looking forward to supporting ECS Global with their current and prospective customers moving forward.”

Derek Buchanan, chief executive officer at ECS, said: “When Brother approached us with a partnership proposal, we knew it would be a great opportunity to work with such an instantly recognisable brand, offering the full range of print solutions our customers need. They can now choose devices for each section of their operations from the same vendor to meet any level of print type and volume, which will simplify their administration, boost their workflow efficiencies and help reduce costs.”

Auto ID Labelling Limits Downtime

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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