Reducing Costs on Low Volume Parts

Tailored Label Products opened in 1984 as a flexographic print converter for the harsh environment / industrial label market. As the market changed, so has TLP, bringing on digital and screen print technologies.

One of our latest investments is onboarding a Hybrid Press that features both flexo print decks and a digital print engine. This print capability is able to capitalize on the strengths of both technologies, driving efficiencies with flexo, digital and variable print.

CHALLENGE: Reduce Costs on Low Volume Parts

Process efficiencies are a shared goal of the customer and TLP, saving TLP time and costs will ultimately drive costs out of the process for the customer. In an effort to reduce costly set ups and free up capacity, the TLP team sought out projects that would benefit from a production shift to the Hybrid press.

TLP uncovered a huge opportunity for a key customer, a water filtration solution manufacturer, who runs over 100 SKUs at varying quantities. The challenge was to implement a new production print process to greatly reduce costs on the customer’s low volume parts where the per piece price was drastically higher due to set up costing. Additionally, TLP’s continuous improvement goals pushed for a more efficient process with less make ready and a reduction in held finished inventory by taking a more just-in-time approach.

SOLUTION: Combo Run via Hybrid Print Technology

Run volume is the name of the game in flexographic manufacturing. The higher the quantity the more the set up and make ready costs can be allocated across the number of parts. At the current state all the parts were printed on a traditional flexo press, without adjustment for annual volume. With set up for 4-6 colors on each item, the set up and make ready costs grew exponentially.

With investment and introduction of TLP’s hybrid press, we were able to combo run all of the low volume parts together, ultimately eliminating the set up and make readies between each SKU. This translated into a $60,000 cost savings over the course of the year.

Utilizing a new technology to gain production efficiencies while driving cost out of the process resulted in a dramatic savings for this end-user. That’s a win-win.