Food Industry Redistributor Automates Printing to 300+ Label Printers

TEKLYNX Print Automation Solution, SENTINEL Increases Print Speed & Labeling Accuracy for the Nation’s Largest Food Industry Redistributor, Dot Foods

TOPICS: PRINT AUTOMATION, ENTERPRISE LABEL MANAGEMENT, MAGAZZINAGGIO E DISTRIBUZIONE, ALIMENTARE

Dot Foods is the largest food industry redistributor in North America and has been helping companies move food products more efficiently and cost-effectively from the manufacturer to distributor since 1960. Headquartered in Mount Sterling, Illinois, Dot Foods helps 1,100 food manufacturers within their 14 distribution centers across North America. As Dot Foods grew, their labeling needs did as well—and TEKLYNX was there to help.

Dot Foods had to acquire a new labeling software that could support them with their labeling needs, create modern pallet labels and other custom labels for their customers, and provide technical support along the way for their 14 distribution centers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. With their previous labeling software provider, Dot Foods was struggling to meet modern security requirements with their internal standards and were using outdated label files that had difficulty communicating with modern in-house printers. “We were using a different platform from a different vendor and we were outgrowing them as well as having trouble with support,” states Troy Schenk, Dot Foods Warehouse Systems Manager.

Dot Foods was looking for a labeling software provider that could:

• Efficiently design their labels
• Accurately print their labels
• Print to their 300+ printers - without going over budget

The TEKLYNX Enterprise Team was eager to help Dot Foods accomplish their labeling goals and support them throughout the transition process with minimal impact to print users.

Solution

Dot Foods collaborated with the TEKLYNX Enterprise Team to determine that CODESOFT, TEKLYNX advanced barcode label creation and integration software and SENTINEL, TEKLYNX print automation solution would be the right fit for Dot Foods. This solution would help Dot Foods meet their internal labeling security requirements to maintain a High Availability (HA) environment, have the ability to automate printing to their large volume of printers, and included TEKLYNX world-class technical and customer support before, during, and after implementation. “We looked at about a dozen different software vendors and then chose TEKLYNX to be our label platform moving forward” states Schenk.

TEKLYNX recognized how important it was for Dot Foods to continue production with an HA environment and eliminate any downtime. Being responsible for 41,000 stocked products from 1,100 manufacturers, Dot Foods could not afford to have any downtime in label production. The TEKLYNX Enterprise Team partnered closely with Dot Foods throughout the entire implementation process and provided seamless integration with their current Warehouse Management System (WMS), JDA, to ensure downtime didn’t happen.

Results

With their newly implemented SENTINEL automated label printing solution, Dot Foods was able to maintain their HA environment and gain reliability with their new labeling software in all 14 distribution centers across North America. They have also been able to integrate seamlessly with internal Android applications and portable printers to gain efficiencies within their labeling environment. “TEKLYNX has made it easier with a much better tool set. Better label designer, better integration; it all works together now,” states Schenk.

By automating what used to be manual, Dot Foods has reached their ideal labeling environment in all locations and can focus on the future growth of their company. “We take great pride in knowing that our enterprise-level automated label printing solution improves accuracy and increases efficiency, positioning Dot Foods to keep driving growth within the food industry supply chain,” states TEKLYNX Americas General Manager, Doug Niemeyer.

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