BLOG: Label defects - just a part of manufacturing life, right?

Label defects - just a part of manufacturing life, right?

Wrong! And they are not just a printing problem either.

When labels need re-printing – or, worse still, products are rejected because of incorrect labels - it's easy to point at the printer, media, ribbon or the label template. But the root cause is almost always a process gap — a point where a defective label could have been identified earlier but wasn't.

The further along the supply chain a defective label travels, the more it costs:

- Caught at inspection → reject and move on
- Caught at packaging → remove, re-print, re-apply, file report
- Caught in the supply chain → potential recall, regulatory notification, customer impact, brand damage

In regulated manufacturing environments, that third category isn't just expensive, it's a compliance event.

The label production teams with the lowest label reject/defect rates have moved their inspection and verification point earlier in the production process. In fact, endpoint label inspection has become the watchword for these smart manufacturers in both compliance and non-compliance sectors.

They have rejected error prone, manual post-print checks and replaced them with a complete print process control in the form of automated inspection and verification. Bringing together all the variables of label production - label template design, media, ribbon, printer spec, even atmospheric conditions – and digitally managing the print process, inspection and audit trail means that these manufacturers virtually eliminate the possibility of a rogue label making it out of the print room. Add in Cloud capabilities to the inspection process and their supply chain will never be bothered by a pesky duplicate label either, no matter how many print rooms are producing labels for the same products around the world.

So where in your labeling and packaging (or, say it quietly, distribution) process is a label defect most often identified? And how many of your processes rely on manual checks and human intervention? Even if that number is just one, then you’ve found your process gap.

Talk to us about your goals for label quality and we’ll be pleased to show you how you can achieve them with a tour of our Perceptor end point label inspection and verification solution.