TOP 20 - Modern Materials Handling

PACKAGING
Case printing
Original Philadelphia Cheesesteak Co. saves on ink and labor by
consolidating functions.
By Sara Pearson Specter, Editor at Large
The Original Philadelphia Cheesesteak Co., a
niche manufacturer of Philly-style sandwich
steak product, used to use a two-step process
to code corrugated containers to ship its products.
First, printing date and lot codes directly on
the box with a dot-matrix ink jet printer, then using
a print-and-apply labeler to place a UPC bar code on
the corner of the box.
The company consolidated those functions by
switching to four large-character continuous ink jet
printers (Videojet, 800-843-3610, www.videojet.com)
in 2007. The change yielded tasty results, dramatically
cutting coding-related downtime and eliminating
the cost of labels. Further, the printers’ self-maintenance
system continuously keeps printheads free
of dust and debris for consistently clear codes, which
the previous two-step process could not produce.
“Crisp, clear codes are important to both our
company and our distributors for tracking and tracing,
warehousing and inventory, reordering, billing
and order fulfillment,” says Jim Trivelis, president of
Original Philadelphia Cheesesteak Co. “Clear codes
set the tone for the entire supply chain process.”
Orders are prepared and shipped from two processing
facilities in Philadelphia: a 40,000-squarefoot
facility that manufactures fully cooked product
and an 80,000-square-foot counterpart for raw processing.
According to Trivelis, the company’s old
dot-matrix ink jet printers tended to print codes that
would blur or bleed, and the print-and-apply labelers
experienced extensive downtime, which required
workers to hand-apply labels.
Upon implementing the new printers the company
saw results immediately. The printers provided
consistently clear variable data such as date, lot code,
product code and UPC bar code on up to 30 boxes
per minute, translating to 12,000 boxes per eighthour
shift and 60,000 boxes per week.
“The print-and-apply labelers and dot-matrix printers
just couldn’t keep up with those speed require-
modern BEST PRACTICES
delivers tasty results
ments,” Trivelis says. “The print-and-apply labelers
required time for setup and would take several minutes
to execute a code change.”
With nearly 200 product SKUs, Trivelis says it’s possible
for a line operator to change codes up to 10 times
per day. A laptop computer maintains the database of the
company’s product SKUs, all of which have been loaded
onto the four printers. When a new SKU is added, it is
The company consolidated printing and labeling
with large-character continuous ink jet printers.
created on the laptop and then transferred with a USB
memory drive to the printers. From there, choosing the
desired code takes less than a minute.
Further, the printers’ self-cleaning and maintenance
system eliminates wasted ink and downtime because
line operators don’t have to stop a line to prime, purge
and clean the printhead. Low-ink warnings allow
operators to add new ink without stopping production.
Trivelis expects the new printers to pay for themselves
in about one year, due to savings on ink, labels and
labor.
mmh.com MODERN MATERIALS HANDLING / A PRIL 2009 33