I have often wondered why, despite so many technological advances that make the supply chain management faster, reliable and more efficient, print and apply labelling (LPA) technology hasn’t seen any major breakthroughs for the past 20 years. There have, of course, been some welcome developments; for example, modern LPAs now allow for label applicators to be integrated on production lines to apply labels directly onto pharmaceutical packaging.
Today’s customers have a variety of choices when it comes to the type of applicators they can use to suit their requirements. For example, they may want to choose between an air jet module, which blows the labels onto the products and is suitable for high speed lines, and a tamp applicator, where the pad that holds the printed labels is pushed towards the tablet carton by an air cylinder, or they may need a corner wrap module, specifically designed to apply labels around corners of carton cases.
In September 2013, the US signed into law the Drug Quality and Security Act (HR 3204). This addresses the security of the pharmaceutical supply chain by authorising the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop a national track and trace system to minimise opportunities for contamination, adulteration, diversion or counterfeiting.
The act has set a deadline of 2017 for drug manufacturers to upgrade their production lines to enable them to print unique serial numbers on their product packaging, and 2023 to introduce electronic coding capable of tracking medicines from the factory to the pharmacy shelf. As such, manufacturers must start looking at their production lines to determine how to put a track and trace or serialisation system in place or whether their existing track and trace systems are compliant with the legislation in force in their target markets, and if not, to see how improvements can be made.
High quality and legibility of printing is imperative to meet pharmaceutical industry compliance; in response to this the print quality of current ribbons and the availability of labels matched to different substrates have never been better. Even the number of labels per roll has increased over the years to extend the labelling uptime. The latest software can help prevent incorrectly printed dates and reduce printing errors. Furthermore, modern LPA systems have built-in memory settings to ensure that job changeovers are quicker and their built-in user interfaces provide simplified set-up, configuration and control options.
So why is it that despite such progress being made, modern LPAs still cause a great deal of frustration?
The problem lies mainly with the time-consuming labelling jams that necessitate countless manual adjustments and costly unscheduled downtime. Despite technological advances the number of unlabelled and mislabelled cases, albeit reduced, are still giving pharmaceutical manufacturers a headache. The frequent unscheduled stoppages needed to adjust, maintain or repair parts of the machinery means that achieving 100% uptime is an impossible dream.
A revolutionary new approach is required if we want to make this dream a reality. In response to industry needs, we have taken an innovative approach to LPA design with the Videojet 9550 to address - and fix - the common causes of lost productivity. This new design removes the mechanisms that frequently cause everyday operational problems, such as label jams and routine manual adjustments. The 9550 with Direct Apply places the label onto the pack without the need for a tamp or air blast applicator, achieving throughput of up to 150 packs per minute for typical 4 inch x 6 inch GS1 barcode labels. This means it never misses a label, even after line build-backs. By incorporating technology, Intelligent Motion, the entire system is precisely and electronically controlled, targeting zero unscheduled downtime on production lines.
Through simplifying the concept of design and engineering, pharmaceutical manufacturers can now rely on their LPA system to reduce downtime, operate at high throughput speeds and never miss a label again. It is a win, win situation.
Ondrej Kruk is a Business Unit Manager at Videojet Technologies. His main responsibility at the company is the global commercial leadership of the Print and Apply Labeling (LPA), Large Character Marking (LCM) and software business units. Kruk has 10 years of business experience, four of them in the product identification and digital printing industry. In his previous role, as global manager of the Product Decoration Business at Videojet, he was able to turn a North American business unit into a global business by leveraging the capabilities of an industrial technology to revitalise a product category in the consumer goods market. Prior to Videojet, he was an Associate at A T Kearney, a global management consulting firm.
