Who doesn’t love bacon? Apparently, nobody. 908 million pounds of bacon are sold each year in the U.S., averaging out to about 3 pounds of bacon per American. You don’t have to tell us if you’re higher or lower- that’s not the point of this story.
In our business, no two customers’ needs are exactly alike. So, our customers know they can bring us a specific situation or challenge, and we’re not going to be intimidated by it. Such was the case with a well-known food manufacturer who approached us to help with a custom label solution for a specific flavor of bacon.
The Challenge: Selective Labeling Setbacks
Our customer was introducing a new bacon flavor and they needed a label to let customers know this particular flavor was processed with natural smoke and cured for 12 hours. Simple enough, except this manufacturer produced several different flavors of bacon all at the same time, and only the new flavor needed the label. But all the packages came down the same line randomly and intermittently, so there wasn’t a great way to sort the products that needed to be labeled from the ones that didn’t.
In addition, this customer had worked with a previous vendor that had damaged the product packaging in the label application process. The film on top of the bacon package was extremely thin and sensitive. We needed a label merging and application system that would protect the packaging and preserve the product.
The Solution: A Custom Approach to Label Application
Technology can do amazing things these days if you know how to use it. We developed a custom label solution for the customer that accounted for all of their requirements. We created a vision system designed to detect the logos on every package of bacon and identify the packages that needed to be labeled. The logo served as a trigger for application. If a package came down the line that didn’t have the right logo, the vision system knew to ignore it.
Additionally, we worked with the customer through trial and error to arrive at an application process that would get the label automatically applied on the product securely, without damaging the package.
The Result: Custom Label Solutions Our Customer Can Count On
Our customer came to us with a problem they had no idea how to solve. And like many times before and since, PrintFlex got to work overcoming it. Where others saw challenges, our team saw opportunities. We were able to utilize technology to sort the products (without having to actually sort the products) and developed a custom label solution that helped our customer communicate critical information with consumers.
What problem can we help you overcome?