Oakrun Farm Bakery Reduced Errors by Centralizing Label Management

TEKLYNX CENTRAL Increases Security and Eliminates #1 Cause of Production Downtime for Oakrun Farm Bakery

TOPICS: ENTERPRISE LABEL MANAGEMENT, YİYECEK VE İÇECEK

Oakrun Farm Bakery, a subsidiary of ARYZTA AG, is a leading supplier of baked foods. Located in the farming heartland of Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, the company specializes in baking sweet muffins, bagels, angel food cake, pound cake, and artisan Danish pastries. Oakrun Farm Bakery’s branded English muffins and crumpets are the most popular brand of English muffins and crumpets in Ontario. With hundreds of different foods and over 700 product labels in its label library, the bakery’s labeling needs are an important part of its day-to-day operations.

Oakrun Farm Bakery had been employing TEKLYNX LABELVIEW for its barcode labeling needs. While the software offered Oakrun Farm Bakery a powerful label design tool, the bakery found that, as its operations rapidly expanded, its labeling needs grew as it required more and more licenses installed on machines throughout the bakery, which led to more security concerns and issues surrounding increased demands on the IT department.

Additionally, the bakery’s managers grew concerned about the impact label printing errors could have on its operations. These errors, rooted in the lack of label security and the difficulty of finding the correct labels, were one of the top causes of downtime at the bakery, as a single misprinted label batch could stall baking operations for hours. With its existing labeling operations, print users could modify labels with no internal record of who had modified which label. There was also nothing to stop users from accidentally printing labels that had yet to be approved for use.

The risk of efficiency-damaging label printing errors was high. These label printing errors not only wasted Oakrun Farm Bakery’s time and money, but they also caused frustrations within the bakery, as speed and efficiency are both organization-wide priorities. “If a mistake was made and we misprinted 1,000 cases with the wrong label, that would be a significant amount of time and money lost,” notes Igor Guzar, Project Manager at Oakrun Farm Bakery. Another issue with Oakrun Farm Bakery’s labeling operations was the amount of time it took users to locate the labels they needed. Users needed to navigate through a complicated directory with many subfolders, each containing dozens of unique labels.

As a result, it took users several minutes to find the correct labels, and possibly longer if they had never previously accessed that particular label. With expanding operations, growing concerns about security issues causing production downtime, and an ever-present demand to maximize production efficiency, Oakrun Farm Bakery needed a new labeling software solution that allowed for a growing number of users, greater label security, and increased the speed and efficiency of its label printing processes.

Solution

While Oakrun Farm Bakery knew it needed to increase label printing capacity, speed, and security, it was not sure how to accomplish that.

In an attempt to obtain a temporary solution to its capacity problems, the bakery approached the TEKLYNX Enterprise Sales Team for more LABELVIEW printing licenses. The team, however, knew that a better solution existed for Oakrun Farm Bakery’s growing needs: TEKLYNX CENTRAL, TEKLYNX International’s browser-based, integrated enterprise label software.

“If a company asks for 10-15 more printing licenses, there’s a very good chance their labeling environment has grown more complex and they need a higher-tiered, enterprise solution. The team knew that and informed them immediately,” said Nick Recht, TEKLYNX Enterprise Sales Manager.

Now aware of the need to upgrade its labeling software solution, Oakrun Farm Bakery’s IT department evaluated several options. However, based on the promising information uncovered about TEKLYNX CENTRAL’s integrated applications, controlled security environment, customizable user interface, and centralized controls, as well as an already positive relationship with TEKLYNX and its products, the bakery chose to implement TEKLYNX CENTRAL as its new solution.

The implementation process took three months from the time Oakrun Farm Bakery first placed its purchase order to the time TEKLYNX CENTRAL had been fully integrated into its operations. Oakrun Farm Bakery’s staff found the TEKLYNX support and implementation team, led by Recht, to be very responsive to any questions or needs throughout the process. With TEKLYNX normal operating procedures well beyond labeling software industry standards, the implementation and printer setup process was executed seamlessly, with no friction or hurdles reported by either Oakrun Farm Bakery or TEKLYNX team members.

Results

With TEKLYNX CENTRAL, Oakrun Farm Bakery experiences the benefits of a centralized and streamlined label management system that has increased both its label security and label printing efficiency, while eliminating the frustrations and production downtime caused by label errors.

TEKLYNX CENTRAL’s ability to separate barcode label design users from print users has eliminated label errors, as users no longer have the ability to modify or misprint labels at the bakery level. The enterprise labeling software solution also allows Oakrun Farm Bakery to track any changes to each label and to identify exactly which user made them.

According to Guzar, “TEKLYNX CENTRAL has definitely enforced standardization. All of our employees now access and print labels the same way. The simplicity of the interface reduced the amount of training needed and the number of errors made. It also prevents employees from printing any labels that are not finalized yet.”

As labeling errors previously were Oakrun Farm Bakery’s number one cause of downtime, this increased label security and standardization has significantly increased the bakery’s operational efficiency.

TEKLYNX CENTRAL’s easy-to-use interface has also decreased the amount of time Oakrun Farm Bakery’s print users need to spend on label printing. The approximately 35 employees printing labels at the bakery save between two to three minutes at the start of every print job they initiate. With numerous print jobs run at the bakery every day, the time savings really add up. Assuming each employee initiates one print job per day, the time saved adds up to between 70-105 minutes or between 1.17-1.75 employee hours per day.

“We have a very fast-paced and efficient environment. The biggest advantage for us is speed. With TEKLYNX CENTRAL, we’ve been able to maintain the speed of production, eliminate errors, and increase efficiency,” Guzar notes.

Oakrun Farm Bakery’s use of TEKLYNX CENTRAL has been notably seamless. In fact, in the three years the bakery has been using the enterprise labeling software solution, its users have never had to contact TEKLYNX for technical support.

With the centralized interface, server-based automation options, and increased security offered by TEKLYNX CENTRAL, Oakrun Farm Bakery has an integrated labeling software solution that helps it save time and money, while maintaining its highly efficient baking operations.

“Our experience with TEKLYNX has been excellent. From the very beginning of our transition to the TEKLYNX CENTRAL software, TEKLYNX has provided us with great support and guidance every step of the way to ensure a smooth transition. The software itself is reliable, easy to use, and secure, and has provided us with a greater control of the whole labeling process from the creation of the label to it being printed by the final user. I would definitely recommend TEKLYNX CENTRAL to others,” Guzar added.

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