How a leading building manufacturer achieved 100% label accuracy by integrating labeling with SAP

Our customer, a leading building manufacturer in North America, worked with Loftware to integrate its labeling with SAP to improve consistency across its business units and create one standard process for customers, regardless of where they purchased their products. 
 
The company had implemented SAP as its standard enterprise system in 2014. However, labeling was still a fragmented landscape. The IT department managed five different labeling systems across nine manufacturing sites. None of the labeling systems integrated with SAP, which meant creating, changing, and approving labels was a time-consuming, manual process. The lack of communication between the labeling systems meant that label formats were often inconsistent and label templates were duplicated across multiple sites.  
 
They chose Loftware Spectrum because of its certified integration with SAP, which would enable the company to scale a standardized labeling process across all 60 manufacturing sites. By integrating labeling with SAP, our customer achieved 100% accuracy of labeling output.  
 
Here are three benefits the company experienced after implementing Loftware Spectrum: 
 
#1 Improving label consistency. The lack of communication between the company’s various labeling systems made it difficult to produce consistent labels. As a result, the label’s appearance varied depending on where it was produced. By integrating labeling with SAP, operators can drive label printing directly from the system. Spectrum’s business rules automatically determine formatting based on master data pulled from SAP. The company also uses business rules to automate template selection based on customer or product information.  
 
#2 Making label changes faster. The company wanted to move responsibility for label changes out of the IT department and into the hands of business users, in this case the marketing and product management teams. Spectrum’s built-in label designer, with its drag-and-drop design tools, WYSIWYG interface, and review-and-approval workflows, made it easy for business line users to take over the label creation process. This shortened processing time for label updates from two weeks to two days. 
 
#3 Significantly increasing system uptime. This company prints and applies labels at the time of manufacturing. To maintain production schedules, labeling must be available 24/7. By investing in Spectrum’s multi-site capability, remote locations can continue to process labels, even when there is a networking disruption. The system automatically synchronizes transactional and label data with a central location once the connection with the communications network is restored.  
 
Results?  
 
By implementing Loftware Spectrum, the company now has a flexible, scalable labeling solution that will enable them to meet the increasing demands of retail customers. Read our full case study to learn more about how the company improved its labeling processes with Loftware Spectrum, and how your organization can achieve the same results.