The Pitfalls of a Bad Label Process: What could go wrong?

A bad label process will result in errors that cost you money and cause customer dissatisfaction, employee stress, and numerous other problems that can be avoided.

The following is a list of the eight most common problems that are a RESULT of labeling errors.  We list them here so you can be aware of what might happen so you can avoid them.

Why these eight specifically? This list is a compilation of decades of experience in manufacturing labeling mishaps where clients called us to help solve these issues. They can be avoided altogether if you have a great labeling solution that works for your unique situation.

PaladinId can help. Send us an email or give us a call at 888.972.5234.

The Eight Most Common Outcomes from a Bad Labeling Process

1. Incorrect or incomplete data

Products are delayed due to mislabeling and related data errors. This includes using the wrong label or a label with incorrect or incomplete data.

Negative Consequences:

• Delivery deadlines are missed
• Increased inventory carrying costs
• Products expire, become outdated, or obsolete
• You lose customers

2. You Pay Lots of Fines

Label production delays due to non-compliance labels cause shipment delays. Shipment delays typically result in fines or reimbursements. Let’s not forget that non-compliant labels can also trigger recalls and fines as well. As labeling compliance becomes more global (a good thing) compliance is more important than ever.

3. You Lose Business 

If your business experiences repeated label issues this could result in:

• delayed shipments
• customer fines
• delivery of the wrong product
• You lose customers

Any combination of these issues will cause customers to seek alternate sources.

4. Your Reputation will Suffer

If you continue to have labeling issues that complicate and/or delay service in any way, not only will you lose current customers but it will be really hard to gain new ones. Failures in this area will dramatically impact your brand and reputation. We’ve all heard the stories of companies who do not survive a major product recall. Don’t let this be you.

At the first sign of a problem or slow down, bring in an expert to evaluate your labeling process so you can refine it and foolproof it. We can help! Send us an email or give us a call at 888.972.5234.

5. Your Inability to Scale Operations 

Speed and efficiency are two areas to regularly examine for opportunities to improve your ability to scale. Your system should allow you to bring on new customers, lots of them, with little to no disruption to your process. When things like improper load dividing or redundant relabeling slow everything down, or halt operations, your bottom line suffers. You lose customers.

6. Your Recall Cycle Takes Way Too Long

Recalls do happen. To minimize the negative impact on your business you need to quickly identify and find the product and complete the recall cycle. Track and trace labeling solutions help immensely. You will lose much less money and safeguard your reputation. We can help you put these things in place. Send us an email or give us a call at 888.972.5234.

7. You Can’t Adapt Easily to Changing Industry Standards

A global economy means you need to keep up with emerging GLOBAL product labeling standards. Some of these are mandated by governments and cannot be ignored.  If you aren’t aware of them or can’t comply you will not be able to business with these countries.

In order to streamline the supply chain, you need the ability to support language requirements and compliance variability based on each country’s regulations. This can be time-consuming and complex and leaves too much opportunity for error.  Using technology and the proper labeling compliance solutions (and automating as much as possible) will allow you to compete and thrive on a global scale.

We can help! Send us an email or give us a call at 888.972.5234.

8. You Can’t Easily Meet Your Customer’s Labeling Requirements

If you can’t meet your customers’ requirements you can’t do business with them. It’s that simple. Your customers have specific label layouts and data content and if you can’t deliver YOU LOSE CLIENTS.  Labeling is a critical factor when considering businesses’ ability to quickly and seamlessly distribute their products from supplier to customer.

One More Thing To Consider: IT Management Chaos

We see this over and over again. Companies are at their wit’s end and call us to make their labeling processes simpler and more streamlined. Does this scenario found familiar?

You have been in business for several years and have accumulated various types of clients, all with specific labeling and compliance needs. You have different labeling systems to meet these various needs, including stand-alone systems with no relevance or connection to enterprise data and business applications. You are running mini-systems and businesses inside your big company. That’s a lot of labor and brainpower.

If you have gone through a merger or acquisition, you have probably adopted even more systems and varied labeling methodologies and technologies. It’s a lot to manage and keep track of. what you need is an overarching product identification solution that can consistently and efficiently generate labels by product, customer, or country. WOW, wouldn’t that be nice?

WARNING: This isn’t what you want to hear, but your situation is just going to keep getting worse. As you acquired operations in emerging countries they have their own labeling infrastructure, systems, and processes.

If you don’t establish an enterprise-wide and centrally managed solution for products manufactured in multiple locations you will continue to have to rework your system.What a headache and waste of time.

Do you have any of the following:

• Home-grown workarounds?
• Numerous extract modes?
• Employees who know parts of the system but not the whole thing

If any of the above is true it will result in conflicting organizational behaviors, brand inconsistencies, mislabeling, process failures, and extremely high costs and fines.

Before you lose all hope we are here to tell you that there is a straightforward approach to solving these problems. You can streamline your process to serve all of your customers and easily onboard new ones. Stop wasting time and money and pick up the phone and contact PaladinID today. Send us an Email or give us a call at 888.972.5234.