How to prevent promo label errors
Promotional labels are a staple of the food industry. Whether it’s offer messaging, like 3 for 2, or product information, such as 100% organic, the options for additional flashes to entice consumers are endless. But ensuring the right promo label is applied to each product, on top of the standard packaging checks that are required, can be difficult and it’s easy to lose track and send out products with incorrect promos – potentially leading to a product recall costing tens of thousands of pounds. We can all agree that this situation is best avoided so how can you prevent promo label errors? Automation can help.
Leave behind complex, paper-based checks…
Ensuring that the right product leaves the factory in the correct packaging with the authorised date code can already be a complex job without automation, with various paper-based checks and approvals. But if you add in promo labels, this brings a whole new level of complexity that can cause problems on the packaging line. Whether your promo labels are applied automatically by your bagger or flow wrapper, or you’re affixing stickers directly to an individual item, without any identifiable features such as a 1D or 2D code, you’re reliant on your operators to match the right product with the right packaging and the right promo label every time. This can be a tall order even with paper checks and control procedures as it’s easy for things to be missed in a busy factory floor with hundreds of products coming down the packaging line every minute.
In most instances with your retail customers, if you apply the wrong promo label, you’ll receive a fine, in addition to the costs associated with removing the product, alongside other indirect costs, such as reputational damage or loss of contracts, so it’s imperative to get this right. But with the risks associated with paper-based and visual checks, you need a more robust system.
Say hello to automation!
The OAL Connected system solves the problem of complex, paper-based checks by automating all label and date code checks. With OAL Connected you can ensure that you have the right product in the right packaging with the right date code every time. And promos can be seamlessly added into these processes. By tracking promo labels as an additional packaging element within your master product database, we’re able to verify the promo label against the running job via offline quality checks at the start of runs and/or at timed intervals, depending on your needs, or as an in-line check, verifying each promo label on every pack. In this way we’re not just detecting promo label presence, we’re actually checking that the right one is present and correct.
Once you’ve mastered your automated checks, some food manufacturers want to take advantage of on-pack verification for verifying promo label details (e.g. colour, shape, characters etc.) using our APRIL Eye vision technology. Our AI-based system can actually read the label, adding an additional level of security to your packaging line.
At OAL Connected, we understand how important it is to prevent any promo label errors. With our robust, flexible and reliable automated checks you can have the confidence that your packaging will be correct every time, saving you time and money. Speak to our experts today and we can advise on the best approach for your facility.
