7 Key Components of a Successful Label Management System

7 Key Components of a Successful Label Management System

BY: CASEY SCIANO / DATE: 12/13/2022 / TOPICS: ENTERPRISE LABEL MANAGEMENT

Labeling is a critical method of communication for any company with physical operations. If labels are wrong, it impacts so many other areas of the business: inventory, sales, customer relationships, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and more. The biggest contributor to labeling errors is a disjointed labeling process made up of many different software solutions cobbled together.  

A label management system is an all-encompassing system that standardizes and centralizes the labeling process. With a successful label management system, labeling errors can be prevented, keeping your business efficient and productive.  

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Why should I care about a label management system? 

Before we get into the 7 key components, let’s talk about why a label management system is so beneficial to businesses.  

A label management system increases efficiency. Without an integrated system in place, getting the right label on the right product can take many manual steps in various systems. This takes time, causes frustration, and increases the risk for mistakes. With a streamlined labeling system in place, the entire labeling process, from design to print, happens seamlessly. Human interaction is minimized, saving your staff’s time for other value-added activities. 

A label management system reduces errors. If your disjointed labeling process requires manual data entry, the risk of labeling errors is high. No matter how careful your staff is, mistakes happen. Labeling mistakes can result in huge fines and even product recalls. With a fully integrated labeling system, your label printing software pulls data directly from your business system, eliminating the need for manual data entry and minimizing the risk for errors. 

A label management system makes IT maintenance easy. With a disjointed labeling environment, your IT department has to manage countless installations of various software solutions on individual workstations. This takes a lot of valuable time and effort. A centralized label management system allows IT to manage all label software installations from the central IT office.  

There are so many more benefits to implementing a label management system. Check out our customer case studies for real user stories.  

The 7 Key Components of a Label Management System 

1. The People
2. The Process
3. Label Design Application
4. Label Template Approval and Management
5. Label Printing Tools to Meet Any Requirements
6. Centralized Administration
7. Labeling Hardware

1. The People 

Before we jump into the software components of a label management system, we have to talk about the people who work with them. At TEKLYNX, we believe software systems should always be implemented with people in mind. Who is typically involved in label management? Here are the roles we most often see: 

• IT: Any time you’re working with hardware or software, IT is involved. They’re responsible for ensuring the labeling software works with existing business systems, is compatible with current operating systems, and can communicate with existing or future hardware. 
• Label designer: The label designer could come from any department. Their responsibility is to create the label templates in accordance with internal requirements and labeling regulations.  
• Quality manager: The quality manager works very closely with the label designer to ensure label templates meet internal and external standards before they are approved. The label approver should always be a different person than the label designer for the most effective quality control. 
• Production staff: Always include the staff who will be printing, applying, and scanning the labels. Ensure the label printing experience is simple and quick so they can keep up with the fast pace of production.  

These are the core roles we usually see involved in a labeling project, but your labeling team might have even more members involved. Defining these stakeholders early on will ensure your label management system meets the needs of the entire organization. 

2. The Process 

Next, review the entire labeling process. Start by investigating the current steps, from label request to printed label. Document which people, systems, and data are involved and how steps in the process are triggered. Keep in mind that different departments and business units may be following different processes. 

Once you have a bird’s eye view of the current labeling process, you can begin to craft your company’s ideal labeling process. In some cases, you might identify ways to fix your current process. In other cases, you might find it better to start from scratch. Here are some questions to consider: 

• How are new labels requested? 
• Who approves new label designs before they are put into production? 
• How many label templates do you currently have? 
• What data is printed on each label template, and where does it come from?
• If data is manually entered, could it be pulled from a business database instead? 
• What triggers a label print job?  
• If print jobs are manually initiated, could they be initiated by an action from a business system instead? 
• How is the label quantity and label printer determined? 
• How are dates applied to labels? Do they always use the correct format?
• What happens if there’s a label error? 
• How are reprints handled? 

An ideal label printing process has an enforced set of steps, minimizes manual intervention, and maximizes the use of existing business data.  

Need a hand documenting your current labeling process and identifying areas for improvement? TEKLYNX offers consulting services to share our experience with you.  

3. Label Design Application 

Everything starts with designing a label template. When considering your label design application, you should think about both features and licensing. 

Label Design Features: 

Make sure the basics are covered: adding text, barcodes, and images to the label. Check that your required barcode types are supported, and that the software supports color printing if you need color on your labels. 

Most companies require intermediate features such as database connections, formulas, and a GS1 barcode wizard. A great label design application will offer these in the base package. 

Identify the advanced features your company requires.  

• Do you need to print an exact weight onto your label? PortWatch allows you to connect a device to your software for data input.  
• Do you need to print complex documents with multiple database records? GridField enables dynamic label templates that expand and shrink depending on the amount of data.  
• Do you need to visually highlight specific words (such as allergens on food labels) every time they appear? Tagged Text Management does just that.

PortWatch, GridField, and Tagged Text Management are some of the many advanced features of CODESOFT Enterprise label design software, which is part of the TEKLYNX label management system offering. 

Label Design Licensing: 

Make sure you understand how your label design software is licensed. Some software is licensed per workstation, or computer where the software is installed. Some software is licensed per device, or printer where the software sends label print jobs. Make sure you choose the option that is most cost-effective for your company.  

It’s critical to be sure you understand how support and maintenance works with your label design software license. At TEKLYNX, our subscription licensing includes technical support, version upgrades, and training webinars at no additional cost. Our perpetual licensing can be purchased with a Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA) that provides similar benefits. Find out which option is best for your company and be sure to budget for license and maintenance renewals.  

4. Label Template Approval and Management 

Once a label is designed, it’s important to have a formal label approval process before the label can be printed. At the core of label approval is user management.  

User management means applying specific permissions to different employees based on their role. For example: 

• A label designer can create, open, and edit new labels, but not print.  
• A label approver can view, comment on, disapprove, and approve labels, but not create new ones or print.  
• A label print user can open and print labels, but not edit or approve them.  

Employees must log into the label approval and management system with a secure password. Ideally, the label management system will leverage the existing single sign-on or Windows Active Directory accounts your company already uses. 

LABEL ARCHIVE label security and traceability software from TEKLYNX offers user management, label approval workflows, and an organized central repository for your label files. 

5. Label Printing Tools to Meet Any Requirements 

Label printing is the moment of truth: getting data on product packaging! At TEKLYNX, we’ve seen hundreds of ways companies initiate print jobs. Here, we’ll talk about some useful label printing tools that meet common requirements. 

• Label print forms are a great option for manually triggered label printing. Forms can use data validation such as dropdown lists, incrementing sliders, date pickers, and text fields with character limits. This prevents users from typing wrong data, using incorrect formats, or making spelling errors. 
• When you need a specific weight on your label, nothing beats PortWatch. PortWatch allows you to connect a device, such as a scale, to your labeling software. It waits for the input from the device, and when the input is received, the data is instantly printed on the label. 
• Browser-based label printing, a feature of TEKLYNX CENTRAL label management system, brings serious IT benefits. Instead of installing label printing software on every workstation, set up a secure browser-based printing interface and provide secure credentials to your label printing users. They log in, search for the correct label, and print! Label searches can be configured to your unique business needs: whether it’s a SKU lookup, a work order number, or even scanning a barcode. 
• A great option for giving suppliers access to specific label templates is TCClickPrint. TCClickPrint allows a snapshot, web-portal window into your organization’s label printing. Instead of having to create a specific user group, you can specify a subset of labels that you only want your suppliers to have access to. Simply point TCClickPrint at the file directory where your suppliers' labels are stored and give them immediate access to only the labels in the directory. 
• Total print automation triggered by your business system entirely removes human interaction from label printing, increasing efficiency and reducing errors. When your labeling system is integrated with your business system data, you can take it a step further and automate label printing with SENTINEL. Label print jobs can be initiated when database records are added or modified, when a file is exported to a folder, or by RESTful API integration. 

6. Centralized Administration 

To effectively manage all the software components of a label management system, you need a centralized administration panel. The administrator needs to manage settings, user permissions, and licensing while keeping a bird’s eye view of activity. 

TEKLYNX CENTRAL label management system from TEKLYNX includes a powerful central administration panel. From one central IT office, you can control all software licensing across your organization. Not only do you have granular control of settings, but the system automatically tracks changes to settings over time. You’ll never have to wonder, “When did we change that?” again! 

TEKLYNX CENTRAL puts powerful reporting tools in your hands. At a glance, you can see the most active print users, busiest printers, and most labeled products.  

7. Labeling Hardware 

So far, we’ve talked about the people, process, and software in a label management system. But no label is printed without a printer or scanned without a scanner! Compatibility and integration between your software and hardware must not be overlooked! 

Workstations: 

First and foremost, maintain the PCs used to run your label management system. It’s best practice to replace old hardware on a consistent schedule to avoid hardware failure. Planning an operating system upgrade? Make sure your labeling software is compatible and upgrade it too! 

Printers: 

Printer compatibility with your label management system is of utmost importance. Make sure your label design software includes native printer drivers that allow the software to speak to the label printer in its own language. TEKLYNX works directly with label printer manufacturers to develop and test our own native printer drivers for over 4,000 printer models so our customers can achieve WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) printing!  

Print and Apply Machines: 

As you reduce manual interaction in your label printing process, you may also want to reduce physical manual steps such as applying labels to packaging. Print and apply machines simultaneously print a label and adhere it to the packaging. 

Scanners: 

Make sure your scanners are compatible with the barcodes you’re printing, and vice versa. If you’re using scanners as a data input tool via PortWatch, simply connect the scanner to the workstation. The scanner will input the content of the barcode it scans – just like a keyboard, but much faster and without typos! 

Choose a label management software partner who works with a variety of industry leaders in labeling hardware.  

Build a Label Management System that Meets Your Needs 

TEKLYNX and our partners offer solutions for a complete label management system that fits your company’s unique needs. We’ve implemented thousands of systems and we have years of experience to guide your implementation. Check out our label management case studies. 

TEKLYNX CENTRAL is our all-in-one label management solution that meets all your software needs. Label design, label approval and management, label print automation, and centralized management are all included in the TEKLYNX CENTRAL package. Our expert implementation team will tailor your installation to your exact needs.  

Get in touch with the TEKLYNX team to find out more. 

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