Category: Announcements

Label Traxx Sales Manager Dorothy Asboth explains how harnessing the new generation of MIS’ could revolutionize your business. Read her top 3 reasons to visit Label Traxx at Label Congress in Chicago:

The most successful label converters are the businesses that optimize their operations quickly and efficiently through automation, interconnectivity of systems and access to real-time data. MIS software plays a critical part in improving communication and increasing efficiency. Visit Label Traxx at Label Congress to see my following three highlights:

1. 100% Automated Scheduling

There are hundreds of job parameters to consider when you are scheduling label printing jobs. And there’s always a play-off between the customer’s deadline and scheduling a volume of similar jobs together to minimise make-readies. No human brain can manage it all. So, Label Traxx has integrated with cutting-edge scheduling tool Batched. Batched sequences job tickets using an advanced algorithm based on your company priorities. The result is an optimised schedule with the right job on the right machine at the right time. Batched connects directly to Label Traxx, using your system data to create previously unrealized efficiencies. 

Early adopters have found that these efficiencies add up to big savings in time and money.

2. Online Artwork Approvals

Tracking proof approvals is another time-consuming and lengthy process. Label Traxx MIS has added a new online artwork approvals option to its Siteline product.  Artwork Approvals provides an easy interface for buyers and label suppliers to work online together towards agreement on proofs. Ultimately the tool speeds up the proof approvals process to shorten lead times and get jobs on press faster.

3. Siteline web portal for your customers

It’s 2021. Whenever we buy anything, as consumers we expect to be able to connect online with the retailer. On Amazon we have a complete history of everything we have ever bought and we can re-order it.

Your customers want easy online access to their product information and the ability to view it and place orders at their convenience. Email is not going to cut it as an online ordering strategy in 2021. 

Siteline for Label Traxx provides your customers – label buyers – with online access to order history, order status, a complete and up-to-date catalogue of all the labels you manufacture for them, artwork proofing and approvals, and of course the ability to easily reorder. Make it easy for them to do business with you!

Visit Label Traxx at booth #77 to discuss your company’s workflow and find out how it could be improved. Contact sales@labeltraxx.com to make an appointment.

www.labeltraxx.com

With an eye on growth and continued product development, Rob Mayerson has been appointed President of MIS Software Developer Label Traxx.  Mayerson brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise from leading organizations in the printing industry, including Chief Technology Officer at Sandy Alexander.

Mayerson will be responsible for leading the business while growing key partnerships that add value to label converters around the world. Founder, Ken Meinhardt, will continue as Chief Executive Officer with a focus on strategy and product.

“I look forward to joining the experienced team building an amazing product that has been entirely focused on label converters for over 25 years,” says Mayerson. “I am enthusiastic about significant enhancements under development and our longer-term road map.  We are committed to continuing the evolution of our product and partnerships to serve customers in a more open and connected industry.”

Mayerson will join the Label Traxx team at the Label Congress in Chicago later this month where the company will be showcasing partnerships that offer fully automated scheduling and online customer engagement. 

“We are focused on helping label converters transform digitally.” he adds, “This is to serve their customers more effectively, to have better, more reliable information to inform decisions, to automate, and connect.”

Visit Label Traxx at Label Congress in Chicago booth #77 and find out how Label Traxx can help your business.

When the pandemic hit, Robert Parker, CEO of Label King, CA, knew the company needed to streamline its workflow and provide online tools.

Robert Parker admits that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, his company, Label King, was using its Label Traxx software relatively minimally. 

“We were just doing the basics – estimating, packing slips, job tickets – that sort of thing,” he says. “But then Covid hit, and suddenly we had employees working remotely. So, we went on a journey with the goal of simplifying things, and part of that simplification process was our move to use Label Traxx to create purchase orders and invoices. And since doing, things have been so much easier for us – my only regret is not doing it sooner.”

Based in San Diego, CA, Label King has been in business since 2002 serving a multitude of end-use markets, and since that time has printed more than 2.9 billion labels. Not only is that a lot of labels, but also a lot paperwork. 

“Prior to transitioning to Label Traxx, we used Quickbooks, and were dealing with so much extra paperwork while slogging through redundant data entry processes. Label Traxx has allowed us to become completely streamlined,” Parker says. “An order comes in, Label Traxx creates a job ticket, confirmation and invoice – all at once. The confirmation goes to the customer to confirm price and quantity, next the ticket then goes to production, then we print the labels from the job ticket and ship using the packaging slip. We then invoice straight from the packing slip.

“We’ve gotten rid of so much paper, and we are no longer bogged down with redundant product entry,” Parker says, adding, “Plus, being able to invoice faster helps our receivables – the quicker you invoice, the quicker you get paid.”

The Label King team was easily also brought up to speed on the software. “It’s very intuitive,” Parker says. “Our staff was able to get dialed in very quickly.”

Label King is in the early stages of its digital printing journey, and one of its first moves was to hire Turi Fiske, an experiencesd graphic designer with a deep understanding of the labels and packaging industries. In addition to adding Fiske, who spearheads the new digital department, the company also opted to invest in Siteline from Label Traxx – a web portal for end users to order labels, review their products and view order history. The tool is proving to be a tremendous customer service asset and is poised to play a critical role in the new digital department. 

“With Siteline, we’re so much more efficient with large, multi-line orders,” Fiske says. “Order entry has been decreased dramatically. As we start serving more and more customers with needs for several SKUs, we want to make things as easy as possible for them. And providing them with the ability to place their own orders with Siteline accomplishes that.”

As Label King ramps up its digital business, Siteline is a key component. “It’s a real value-add and a huge time-saver. It’s so intuitive,” Fiske says. “Being mobile-friendly and visual are just a couple aspects of Siteline that will make a real difference for our customers – and they are going to love it.”

Parker acknowledges that its investment in Label Traxx and Siteline is helping take Label King to a whole new level. “If we did things the old way, it would be a nightmare.” He concludes, “Our goal is to continue growing our business with the great team we have in place, and the way to do that is increasing what they are able to do with enhanced efficiency – and we are well on our way to doing just that.”

Label Traxx MIS announces its integration with batched.io to provide label converters with a cutting-edge automated scheduling tool. 

Batched is an automated scheduling tool for label printers that sequences job tickets using an advanced algorithm resulting in the best job, on the best machine, at the best time – every time. Batched connects directly to Label Traxx, leveraging your data to create previously unrealized efficiencies that add up to big savings in time and money.

Batched also includes advanced reports providing insight into capacity planning, real-time order status, key business indicators and more, increasing productivity across all areas of your business. 

“It’s an impossible task for a human to consider all the variables necessary to produce on optimized production schedule in real time, that balances customer requirements,” explains Label Traxx MIS president Ken Meinhardt. “Our collaboration with Batched gives our customers cutting-edge technology to generate an automated and optimized schedule.”

Most printers struggle to optimize the entire planning and scheduling process due to the number of variables that need to be juggled. Changing lead times, machine and labor constraints, machine changeovers and waste all need to be taken into consideration. With Batched you establish a set of rules and priorities to tailor the program to your specific manufacturing environment. You customize your machine and labor availability and Batched generates a real time production schedule for each order and machine based on your priorities. Once the rules are established, generating the complete schedule is automated.

“Batched unlocks the potential of label printing businesses by generating efficiency and additional capacity for physical assets and team members alike,” explains Spencer Keith, Business Development Analyst at Amend, the consultancy behind Batched. “Customers can expect immediate material and time savings, increasing utilization and throughput while streamlining operational and communication processes. Batched integrates seamlessly with Label Traxx; you keep your systems while reaping the benefits of automation.”

Keith explains that one customer has seen the following results over the course of a year:

• Machine Utilization increase by 13% 
• Material Waste decrease by 20%        
• Lead Times decrease by 11% 
• On Time Shipments stabilized >95%
• Gross Margin Increase by >3%           
• Sales Increased by 10%

“This all adds to BIG savings in time and money,” he says, “not to mention, you and your scheduler can finally take a vacation.”

Label Traxx customer CLOV (Creative Labels of Vermont) recently began their implementation phase and president Dwane Wall is positive about the results:

“Between Label Traxx, Siteline and Batched, CLOV will have some of the best automation tools and customer relationship management tools available in the industry,” he says. “I’m proud to be part of all of these teams.”

Please contact Label Traxx to discuss your requirements and arrange your demo of Batched.

Label Traxx MIS has added a new online artwork approvals option to its Siteline product. Artwork Approvals provides an easy interface for buyers and label suppliers to work online together towards agreement on proofs. Ultimately the tool speeds up the proof approvals process to shorten lead times and get jobs on press faster. 

Tracking proof approvals is often a time-consuming and lengthy process requiring close communication between the label buyer, customer service and the prepress department. It’s typical for email chains to be sent backwards and forwards between the customer and supplier. Siteline Artwork Approvals simplifies this process by providing a single online system where proof status can be managed by both the end user and label printer.

Customer service at the label converter creates a job ticket in Label Traxx which has products that require proof approval. The prepress department creates the proof files and these are placed in Siteline – either automatically by prepress software such as Esko Automation Engine and Hybrid Cloudflow, or manually. Customer service reviews the proofs and then an email alert is sent to the customer. A link in the email takes the customer to Siteline where they can approve the artwork or they can request changes.

The customer is able to view a 1-up of the label along with the key specifications such as size and materials. They are able to break out and view the layers and color separations. They can also request changes and message the prepress operatives with questions. A full audit log of communication about each product is stored and can easily be referred back to at any point.

“The Label Traxx Siteline module already enables label buyers to check their order history, review label specification details, place reorders and collaborate on new projects,” explains Label Traxx president Ken Meinhardt. “Keeping track of proof approvals is a common bottleneck and converters were asking us for a good online solution. It’s a great enhancement to Siteline and eliminates all of the hassle of chasing and managing approvals.”

Siteline – including the new artwork approvals module – is fully mobile optimized.  Over 51% of online access is now on mobiles and label converters need to be aware that this is how customers are often viewing proofs.

Find out how Siteline can help to streamline your Artwork Approvals process. A demo video of the module can be viewed here: https://labeltraxx.com/siteline-artwork-proofing/ Or alternatively contact us to discuss your personal requirements and to book a demo tailored to your needs.

Label Traxx Business Development Manager Chris Spooner explains why you need Siteline for Label Traxx if you don’t want to get left behind:

• 1. Online access to order products 24/7 is the norm in every other aspect of our lives. Your customers expect it.
  2. Label buyers are starting to demand online ordering in their RFPs. Don’t be the business that has to play catch-up with your competitors.
  3. It’s an angle that your competitors can use to displace you at your existing customers. If you can’t offer online account information, they will take their business somewhere where they can.
  4. You can’t scale your front office without it. Your customer service team is working flat out – online is the only way to increase order volume without taking on new staff. 
  5. Tracking proof approvals through email chains is painful – for both you and your customers. Take days off your time to press!
  6. Your customers are getting younger. They are used to doing everything online and frankly having to speak to a supplier is a burden.
  7. Your customers are demanding faster turnaround times. Getting them to enter their own repeat order details means the job is created automatically in your MIS and just needs scheduling on press.
     
     
  With Siteline your customers can:
  • Access their complete order history
  • Place repeat orders
  • View all the products you print for them 
  • View and approve proofs online
  • Collaborate with customers on new custom orders

  Contact us now to review our Siteline online module – your only employee that will work 24/7, on the lowest pay and never take a day off sick!

Label Traxx Business Development Manager Chris Spooner outlines how label converters can make savings:

1.  Excessive raw materials
   Do you know exactly how much labelstock you have on the shop floor and how much you will need to fulfil your pipeline? Just in time deliveries mean that for most standard materials you can buy to fulfil your orders and you don’t need to keep “just in case” rolls. Make sure you have a roll tracking system. Your MIS system should tell you your material requirements, what you have in stock and what you need to order. Inventory levels will update in real time as rolls of material are scanned as used on jobs. Having a trusted system will enable you to minimise your stockholding.
   And do you track the ageing of your roll inventory? Clear labelling and good working practice will ensure that oldest rolls are used first in production. Your MIS should be able to identify any ageing rolls. The goal should be to use rolls before they have expired past the manufacturer’s use by date. No waste – no cost.
2. Bad admin
   Companies that lack workflow integration on the administration side leak profits. Do you use multiple software applications to get a job from estimating, through production and into accounting? Do people have to re-type the same data into different systems? Once you have estimated a job, you shouldn’t have to enter those job details again once it becomes an order. The spec info should pull to the order, production instructions, purchase orders, packing slip and invoice. Re-entry of data and islands of information waste time and also hugely increase the risk of errors. And don’t get me started on employees who keep their own offline proprietary spreadsheets to keep the jobs flowing smoothly… Give your employees the tools – or even better a single tool – to streamline your workflow and increase productivity.
3. Finished goods inventory
   Do you manufacture overs or finished goods for customers that are not paid for? This is a direct cost to your business. Do you have a guarantee that they will be bought? If your customer hasn’t asked for them and given you a purchase order for them, then they effectively they have no sales value. You have wasted time on press that could have been used for billable work. It is just another cost to your business.
   If you do hold finished goods for customers, make sure you track the ageing of batches that move into stock. Act on the agreements that you have with your customers. Track their days to expiration and once they go over, then ship and bill the customer for them. Your MIS should help with this. Be proactive and manage it.

Label Traxx MIS can help you manage all of the aspects above. Contact us now to arrange a demo and discussion of how we can help your business.