Thermal Ribbons Australia consolidates 100+ labels and creates new custom print capabilities with BarTender
BarTender eliminates time spent on manual label modification and increases label accuracy—quickly and effectively.
“BarTender labeling solution has the best ROI ever, it paid for itself within weeks”
- Ron Lusk, Owner, Thermal Ribbons Australia
critical needs:
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Manual labeling process resulted in errors and inconsistencies
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Meeting customers’ expanding needs required more time and effort
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Mislabeled part numbers disrupted customers’ business operations
benefits:
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Consolidated 100 label templates into a single reusable core template
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Simplified labeling operations through database connections with dynamic data
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Conditional printing automated customer-specific template creation
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Thermal Ribbons Australia has evolved from a small, family-owned business into a well-known industry leader for its commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction. Founded in 2001 and based in Brisbane, Thermal Ribbons Australia handles the manufacturing, distribution, and shipping of ribbons. Now one of the most recognized ribbon manufacturers in Australia, they sell exclusively to TTR resellers, label makers, contract packagers, and bureaus.
Challenge: Manual and Time-consuming Processes
In 2019, Thermal Ribbons Australia expanded its services to include customized labeling, allowing resellers to incorporate their branding and part numbers onto ribbons intended for sale to their customers. These customizations served multiple purposes for customers, including internal labeling, batch code application on ribbon interiors, and labeling for product shipments to customers.
Prior to adopting BarTender, staff members at Thermal Ribbons Australia manually modified labels for each order, involving adjustments for quantities, dates, and ribbon types. Not only was manual data entry heavily time consuming—it also led to occasional human errors, potentially rendering customer products incompatible with their point of sale (POS) systems.
Label accuracy was mission-critical since any inaccuracies in labeling could disrupt customers’ business operations, resulting in revenue losses and possible vendor switches, ultimately negatively impacting Thermal Ribbons Australia’s own business.
Solution: Consolidated Label Templates with Dynamic Data and Conditional Printing
Upgrading to BarTender Professional Edition marked the first instance of Thermal Ribbons Australia connecting its labeling operations to a database, eliminating manual data entry and label creation processes. After establishing their database connections, the team streamlined roughly 100 label templates into a single core template, with data flowing seamlessly from the database into the core template, substantially reducing time previously spent on manual data entry for labeling purposes.
By using BarTender Professional Edition’s enhanced capabilities, Thermal Ribbons Australia effectively reduced potential points of failure by connecting their printers with their label generation process, directly from Excel and CSV files. All employees within the organization were trained in a short amount of time, equipping team members to step in and assist whenever additional help was needed. The intuitive user interface and easy setup empowered the main label operators to establish a streamlined workflow, with backup plans, for consistently efficient label printing.
BarTender introduced conditional printing for approximately 30 different customer-specific box and ribbon templates, and the adoption of BarTender's Print Station allowed operators to mitigate errors by enabling network-wide label printing from any location. BarTender’s conditional printing created data-driven automation rules that specify when different objects, layers, or templates in a document will visibly print or become hidden. This feature enabled automated printing of customer-specific boxes and ribbon templates providing customers the option to personalize their logos, layouts, and styling. Thermal Ribbons Australia was able to scale their personalization services to more clients without requiring any additional resources.
As internal processes became increasingly automated, Lusk could redirect his focus towards sales and marketing initiatives, activities that had previously taken a back seat due to his involvement in the day-to-day label and operational management.
"I wish I had known how easy it was to implement a sophisticated labelling solution like this years ago."
– Ron Lusk, Owner, Thermal Ribbons Australia