World Kitchen Seeks Printronix’s Recipe to Eliminate Unscannable Bar Codes and Cut out Costly Compliance Fines
Printronix Online Data Validation Technology Offers 100 Percent Scannable Bar code Quality, Saves Kitchenware Giant Thousands of Dollars and Increases Shipping Productivity
Kitchenware Giant Sought a New Recipe for Supply Chain Improvement
Clear and reliable bar code label printing is essential with international shipping operations for a company that manufactures and markets a wide range of trusted kitchenware brands including CorningWare®, Pyrex®, Corelle®, Snapware® and Chicago Cutlery®. For World Kitchen, LLC (www.worldkitchen.com), customer satisfaction depends on accurate data that is critical to efficient inventory management and supply chain operations and is encoded on bar code labels. Each year, the company produces millions of 4”x 6” and 4” x 8” bar code shipping labels that contain customers’ parcel information, including shipping addresses and purchase order numbers. Unreadable bar codes in World Kitchen’s supply chain results in operational inefficiency and higher operational costs due to refused shipments, costly reshipments and chargebacks.
Over time, customer imposed compliance fines (chargebacks) due to poor bar code scanability became a very serious and costly issue for World Kitchen. The company was paying thousands of dollars a month in compliance fees. These unscannable bar codes delayed deliveries to department stores, mass merchants and other customers around the world. Manually tracing, isolating and fixing the source printer that produced the unscannable label was costly and labor-intensive.
Achieving 100 Percent Bar code Accuracy
Costly compliance fines and the resolve to end inefficiency throughout shipping operations prompted the need for the integrated Printronix Thermal Printer with an Online Data Validation (ODV™) combination. The Printronix T5000r ENERGY STAR® thermal bar code printers with ODV verify that printed bar code labels are 100 percent machine readable, 100 percent of the time. As a result of adopting this integrated solution, World Kitchen was able to effectively eliminate the problem and has saved the company, thousands of dollars a year in compliance fines alone for each of the six years they have been in use.
“Printronix’s ODV software analyzes incoming data to identify bar code commands for every label. After printing, the bar code image is scanned and tested against the symbology specifications. If an unscannable or poor quality bar code is detected, the label is automatically cancelled and a replacement label is printed. This also eliminates the need to conduct inefficient, expensive and random manual verification."
“Printronix’s online data verification allows us to catch a bad bar code. The printer overstrikes the label immediately in the supply chain process and automatically reprints a good label. This was a key selling point. I don’t know any other company that offers this feature,” said Terry Moore, System/SharePoint Admin III, World Kitchen, LLC.
Printronix T5000r ENERGY STAR® Superior Performer
Before adopting the integrated Printronix Thermal Printers with Online Data Validation, World Kitchen used continuous feed laser printers. Maintaining and repairing these specialized laser printers was laborious and difficult. The company had also used other thermal printers at reprint stations. In comparison the staff finds it easier to load media and perform routine maintenance, like changing print heads without the use of a screwdriver, much easier with the Printronix printers. Another benefit they have experienced is the long life cycle of the Printronix printer. On average, the T5000r ENERGY STAR® printers last seven to ten years. The added efficiency reduces costly downtime and keeps World Kitchen’s operation moving.
“We have been very satisfied with the performance of our Printronix ODV thermal bar code printers at our facilities,” said Moore. “We are certainly mindful of other opportunities to use Printronix printers for our bar code printing solution.”
Terry Moore
System/SharePoint Admin III
World Kitchen, LLC