5 Ways BarTender Solves Labeling Inefficiencies

Author: Scotty Lee, Content Marketing Manager, Seagull Scientific

Labeling inefficiencies are the bane of lean supply chain operations. Navigating through the complex supply chain systems while following regulation protocols is challenging without the proper labeling solution in your toolkit. Proper labeling means maximizing operational efficiency leading to increased ROI for your business. BarTender helps improve labeling operations and labeling efficiency with consolidated label templates, streamlined data, automation, label standardization, now also available in the cloud.

1. Consolidated Label Templates Enable Dynamic Designs

Many labeling software solutions provide features and tools for managing hundreds of label files by consolidating them into templates that are capable of accommodating variable data.

To help companies navigate this challenge, we developed BarTender Intelligent Templates™, a cutting-edge solution for companies to create a diverse range of versatile label designs without having to maintain multiple individual documents. With BarTender, you can leverage simple customization to easily adjust the image, color, object position, and text on every label you print.

BarTender offers dynamic design techniques such as:

Conditional printing: specify exactly when different objects, layers or templates in your document are printed.
Suppression: data sources are hidden or withheld when a condition is met.

2. Centralized Data Increases Labeling Agility

In today's rapidly changing supply chain environment, automated labeling solutions like BarTender serve as an indispensable tool to keep up with these evolving standards. BarTender can seamlessly integrate with existing business Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems such as Oracle, SAP, as well as Warehouse Management Systems (WMS). By leveraging your data system as the source of truth, BarTender ensures that your data is accurately applied to the correct templates with built-in business logic. This guarantees compliance and consistency, delivering accurate labeling across the entire supply chain.

BarTender's Intelligent Templates™ provide a level of agility that enables you to respond quickly to business, industry, or regulatory changes. With the ability to edit the label template's data, format, or design, changes can be applied to every label associated with that template, regardless of where your operations are located worldwide. This flexibility empowers you with a competitive edge by being able to adapt quickly.

3. Simple and Automated

It is critical to consider the demands of enterprise labeling to avoid mislabeling which often leads to product recalls. By automating the labeling process, you can minimize labeling errors and the potential for human errors. Automation can increase label production speeds, improving shipping times and reducing delays. Simple labeling solutions such as BarTender allow for easy onboarding and usage for every member of your team.

BarTender features include:

Template consolidation
Dynamic data management
Simple User Interface (UI)
Web-based triggers that dictate when templates, layers, or objects should print
User-based permissions to ensure security and prevent unauthorized changes

4. Standardized Labeling Enables Repeatable Success

Standardized labeling processes across the supply chain can help achieve the accuracy and warehouse efficiency goals by providing the interoperability that is crucial in demanding supply chain environments. Standardization leads to a consistent, streamlined, and simplified approach for ensuring successful labeling operations.

BarTender connects to your data source and uses it as a source of truth to ensure that all the different parts of your supply chain are aligned. This allows your logistics, warehousing, transportation, compliance, and traceability to remain intact as your products flow downstream. With a data source that is finally reliable, you can remove the need to track and edit all of the other processes because any changes made in your data source will be reflected in your labeling operations allowing for a simple and smooth workflow.

Databases that BarTender supports:

Access
BarTender Data Builder
CSV files
Excel files
Firebird
Google Sheets
IBM DB2
IMB Informix
JSON
MariaDB
Microsoft SQL
ODBC Connections
OLE DB Connections
Oracle
PostgreSQL
QuickBooks Online
SAP HANA
SAP IDoc Files
SQL Servers
Text
XML

5. Secure Label Printing Anywhere Anytime with BarTender Cloud

An effective strategy to ensure labeling consistency throughout the supply chain is to establish a centralized label library that is accessible by first and second-tier suppliers, vendors, clients, and employees. BarTender Cloud offers a simpler way to manage and print to achieve true labeling agility through the cloud. Whether you need to print onsite at the source of work in the warehouse, out in the field, in retail stores, or simply in the office, BarTender Cloud provides the flexibility you need to print on-demand anytime anywhere.

BarTender Cloud allows you to:

Print and manage your labels
Design your labels
Easily connect your data
Integrate business applications
Manage your security and systems
Print on-demand and enjoy reliable performance

Within BarTender, administrators can assign specific permissions to users, enabling users to access only the labels associated with their designated templates, effectively eliminating confusion with other label files. This feature eliminates the need for partners to install apps or a local client to access the labels they need.