SKUing the Data

Henry Ford’s famous quote about his Model T automobile, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black,” reflected the lack of consumer options available in the early 20th century, and for decades consumers were very limited when it came to choices across many product categories. However, if you have been in a store in recent years, you know those days are decidedly gone, and going shopping can often be an overwhelming struggle to decide among the seemingly infinite varieties of, say, toothpaste that are available—even among the same brand. Colgate Total Clean Mint, Colgate Total Fresh Mint Stripe, Colgate Total Whitening, Colgate Tartar Protection With Whitening, Colgate Total Clean Mint With Mint Stripe Whitening and Tartar Protection and Spam…it’s enough to make you wonder if tooth decay is really that bad.

In packaging parlance, this phenomenon is referred to as SKU proliferation, “SKU” standing for “stock keeping unit.” For at least the past decade, an increase in SKUs has been one major driver of digital packaging printing. Today, it is also driving an interest in digital label printing, and for pretty much the same reasons.

“We are seeing not only a decrease in run lengths, but also many more SKUs per single run,” said Brian Cleary, Category Manager, HP Indigo Label Solutions. “Just-in-time production requires shorter runs and often drives more job reprints. The transition to increased SKUs, reduced inventory and just-in-time production is shifting the label market into the digital comfort zone, which includes quick changeovers, accurate, repeatable, consistent color performance, and efficient handling of a high number of jobs per day.”

HP Indigo digital presses can print most label applications, including pressure-sensitive, wrap around, shrink sleeve, in-mold, and cut and stack labels. The company had partnered with the Coca-Cola Company for its famous and successful “Share a Coke” customized bottle campaign, an enhanced version of which was launched in 2015.

“SKU proliferation is a very large driver for digital label production, some estimates indicate SKU numbers have ballooned by a factor of 10 over the last 10 years,” said John Hennessy, Senior Business and Product Manager for EFI’s Jetrion. “Label producers are ganging together shorter runs of copy counts, typically between 100 and 10,000 or more, into larger, very productive runs.”

They are also doing variable-data label printing—not in the sense of the one-to-one personalization we associate with direct mail or the customization and versioning of “Share a Coke,” but adding more prosaic variable content like serial numbers and bar codes.

“When we’ve got orders flowing in, some of those orders are sizable—400,000 to 600,000 labels, but they’re 20 to 50 SKUs,” said Joshua Feller, president of ColorZone. “The issue with traditional label presses like flexo is that the plate charges would kill you with that many SKUs.”

Based in Benicia, CA, not far from Napa Valley, ColorZone had long offered wide-format printing such as trade show and other display graphics, but in December 2014 purchased an EFI Jetrion 4950LX digital label press and is in the process of ramping up its digital label work.

Being in such close proximity to Napa and wine country, Feller found that he was starting to get more and more demand for labels, and began seriously searching for a machine to offer label printing to his customers. He was impressed with the Jetrion; he had seen a demo of the label press at Label Expo and bought the floor model. “I wanted it right away and it was the only one in the world at the time with every option on it,” he said. “They crated it up and shipped it out.”

For Feller, its ability to print white ink was the killer app, as he wanted to print on transparent and metallic substrates, and he found EFI’s white ink to have the degree of opacity he needed. He also liked the Jetrion’s LED UV curing, as well as its laser cutting capabilities, which not only saves on die costs, but also turnaround time. “I can be extremely quick to respond,” said Feller. “I’ve had cases where clients were out of labels and they needed more very quickly.” One client, a yogurt manufacturer, called on a Friday morning. “They came in at lunchtime to pick up their labels,” said Feller.

Thus ColorZone found three primary pluses to digital label printing in general, and the Jetrion in particular: “No die charges, no plate charges, and turnaround is faster than everybody else,” he said.

Steve Middleton, partner at Middleton Printing in Grand Rapids, MI, adds a fourth bonus: automation. “Quality is no longer a question, and it’s incredibly difficult to screw something up,” he said. The imperative in today’s environment is increased productivity. “It’s just like what the printing industry went through over the past 10 to 15 years with digitization and automation. The label industry is going through it now.”

Middleton Printing began 55 years ago as a general small-format commercial printer. In 1976, the company added flexographic label printing and when Steve Middleton took over the family-owned company in 2003, he saw both a declining commercial printing market, and a future in digital printing, specifically digital labels. “I wanted to jump from same-old same-old to the latest technology to deliver really beautiful labels and do it in a way that improved response times to our customers,” he said.

Middleton found that the Epson SurePress L-4033AW digital label press fit his needs. Middleton has a diverse customer and project base that runs the gamut from labels for mining equipment, to bumper stickers, to food-related and nutriceutical product labels, to beer, wine, and spirits. Each has different demands. “We have labels that that end up on mining equipment, so they have to be really really tough,” he said. Falling under the category of “durable decals,” it required a technology that would last three to five years outdoors, or in a mine, or on a boat. Before opting for the SurePress, he had some samples run and lab-tested to see if they would last.

Moving from flexo labels to digital labels also led Middleton to rethink the concept of productivity. “Say a press averages 10 feet a minute,” he said. “In our industry, we’re used to running 100 or 150 feet a minute. I had to rethink what productivity really is.” It’s one thing to set up the equipment to do nothing but long offset runs all day long, but those kinds of jobs are dwindling. “So you need to set yourself up for rapid response and do a lot of jobs,” said Middleton. “After two years, at 10 feet a minute, we are incredibly productive.”

Digital label printing equipment is all over the map in terms of cost and capabilities, but there are three basic considerations, which are not far removed from the consideration of almost any equipment purchase.

“You have to consider price, you have to consider how well it’s going to print spot colors, and how consistent it’s going to be,” said Mike Pruitt, International Marketing and Business Development for Epson. “And when it breaks, are you fully covered? In some of the more expensive machines the printheads aren’t covered. There are a lot of different factors in that reliability part.”

Then there is the need to understand the label printing market, which, again, is not a million miles away from expanding into other kinds of printing, like wide-format.

“Anyone can buy a label press and put ink on substrate,” said HP’s Cleary. “To break into the label market and be successful, a commercial printer will need equipment and expertise. They should look to hire people familiar with the label business, and they should partner with vendors familiar with both the label and commercial print markets. Vendors with a proven track record of helping commercial printers get into the label market can bring invaluable expertise that only comes with years of experience.”

One historical challenge has been understanding flexography, but digital printing has largely made digital label printing virtually—but not entirely—similar to other types of digital printing.

“The process of flexo was foreign to [commercial printers],” said Middleton. “As they have adopted wide-format or they’ve adopted short-run digital with an Indigo, they’re getting a little bit more comfortable with that technology. And it’s a great time to take a look at the label space.”

EFI’s Hennessy also points out that today’s commercial printers have a leg up when it comes to getting into digital label printing. “Many commercial printers are not invested in flexography and therefore not entrenched in flexo processes that take years to develop,” he said. “They also have not invested in hundreds or thousands of flexo dies and cylinders that would become obsolete with the addition of a digital printer/laser die-cutter solution.”

One advantage that digital has over flexo is there is far less waste. EFI touts the “zero waste feature” of the Jetrion systems. “Lean manufacturing is also a large driver for digital label production, and with a Jetrion system, you can enjoy minimal or zero waste between print jobs,” said Hennessy. “That’s a big advantage over older print technologies that require extended re-registration when changing copy plates.”

And as with other types of specialty printing, such as the many species of wide-format applications, opportunities exist with printers’ current customers. “I can almost guarantee that every one of the relationships [printers] have now, they buy labels,” said Middleton. Middleton also uses label printing to create specialty products like custom smartphone cases that are often the purview of UV printers.

“Commercial printers can tap their existing customer base, a portion of which are likely currently buying labels from an external label source,” said Hennessy. “Many commercial printers launch into the label space by working with current customers to build new business over time. In fact, many Jetrion customers are surprised to find that bringing in digital short-run capability attracts more new business than expected. Perhaps they planned to transition a large percentage of jobs from their flexo lines, but instead are filling the digital press with completely new work.”

As more printing companies move into the label printing space, and with systems capable of delivering high-quality labels with a minimum of operator skill, the prevailing question is, how does a shop distinguish itself from the competition? “The simple answer is always relationship, response, and service,” said Middleton. “Those ingredients never change.”