2016 TOP 5 TRENDS IN ENTERPRISE LABELING
OUR THIRD ANNUAL TOP 5 TRENDS IN ENTERPRISE LABELING REPORT OUTLINES SOME OF THE RECENT SHIFTS IN LABELING THAT IMPACT
GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS. THESE TRENDS, WHICH INCLUDE COLOR PRINTING, THE RISE OF GLOBAL REGULATIONS, THE PROLIFERATION OF
CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC LABELING REQUIREMENTS, EMERGING DEPLOYMENT PLATFORMS, AND THE EVOLUTION OF LABELING AS A FUNCTIONAL
POSITION IN GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS, ARE BASED ON FEEDBACK FROM LEADING GLOBAL COMPANIES AND THE “2016 ENTERPRISE LABELING
TRENDS SURVEY.” THIS SURVEY POLLED OVER 600-SUPPLY CHAIN, AND IT PROFESSIONALS FROM ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS ALL MAJOR
INDUSTRIES IN 32 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.
2DEMAND FOR COLOR LABELING IS
INCREASING
The need for color printing is becoming more prevalent across all industries in order to meet evolving
regulatory, customer and corporate branding requirements. Today’s global companies are outlining plans
to increase the purchasing of enterprise software and color print technology sufficient to meet their color
labeling requirements. Support for color printing is gaining in popularity as companies strive to eliminate
the need for pre-printed label stock while reducing the occurrence of waste. Companies are embracing color
print capabilities to recognize a wide range of benefits.
ENABLE REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
Labeling continues to play a critical role in meeting industry standards and regulations. To address these
evolving requirements, companies must comply with a wide range of specific labeling and formatting
requirements, including mandatory color requirements. Many regulations, such as Globally Harmonized
System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS)–in the chemical and related industries–use color
to highlight warnings and critical safety information. To correctly represent these attributes and support
compliance, companies must have color label printing capabilities.
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3of respondents believe
color label printing will
be more important in
three years.
35%
MEET CUSTOMER BRANDING AND USE REQUIREMENTS
Companies today are placing even more importance on the
value of their brand. As a result, they are demanding more than
ever that labels reflect the colors that are fundamental to the
company’s brand. Additionally, in many industries such as medical
device and food & beverage, labels that include color are
becoming critical in helping to distinguish between sizes of
variations of product.
ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR PRE-PRINTED LABEL STOCK
Supporting color printing not only enables compliance to meet
key regulatory mandates and evolving business requirements, it
removes the need for pre-printed label stock, helping companies
save time and money. When manufacturers rely on pre-printed
labels, any type of change or label variation means existing
labels must be switched out, resulting in lost time and reduced
efficiencies. Additionally, there are significant costs associated
with storing pre-printed labels and the waste associated with
those labels when changes are made and the existing stock
becomes obsolete. Alternatively, with color label printing, changes
can be made dynamically to allow printing of the specific labels at
the time they are required. Nearly 60% plan to
purchase additional
color printers in 2016
60%
of respondents
identified branding as
a business driver for
color labeling
57%
XYZ
Inc.
4LABELING IS EVERYONE’S CONCERN
As labeling in today’s global supply chain becomes more complex, companies are realizing
the vital role it plays in meeting customer and regulatory demands. Labeling, which
intersects the supply chain at all levels, is becoming more prominent, involving multiple departments
at global organizations and requiring specialized attention. Those departments include IT, Operations,
Regulatory, Warehousing, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Marketing and even Sales to name a few. Companies
are recognizing the importance of coordinating labeling. In many cases they are establishing labeling groups
or roles to manage labeling. There are three important reasons why companies are beginning to see labeling
as a separate function.
MORE GROUPS INVOLVED IN LABELING
With the number of people and corporate groups involved in labeling growing rapidly, it’s becoming
increasingly important to provide labeling solutions that can meet their varied needs. To this end, companies
are beginning to centralize labeling and access to key sources of label data to ensure that labeling is able
to meet these diverse labeling requirements. Providing a central or designated role to manage labeling
offers a better chance of understanding and addressing the superset of labeling needs dictated by different
groups. Also, with proper organization and collaboration, labeling can be extended to business partners and
suppliers, which reduces the tendency to create redundancy, fosters inefficiencies and increases costs.
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5LABELING IS BEING VIEWED AS A GLOBAL INITIATIVE
As businesses extend their reach across the global supply chain,
they are looking to standardize their labeling solutions and
maintain consistency with their labeling. As a result, a centralized
view of labeling is becoming more important. As companies
scale, they must consider how to efficiently deploy and maintain
labeling solutions in multiple markets and regions. Part of the
challenge of maintaining labeling across a global operation is to
understand the unique requirements in each market or region.
To streamline maintenance and support enterprise-wide labeling
changes, businesses today are being proactive in designating
labeling professionals to manage this ever increasing and
mission-critical role in supply chain operations.
INCREASING LABELING REGULATIONS & CUSTOMER
REQUIREMENTS
The importance of labeling today is even more vital as companies
are tasked with meeting critical customer and regulatory labeling
requirements, while maintaining labeling consistency across
multiple markets and regions. Establishing a dedicated labeling
role offers oversight to ensure that the business is adhering to
both regulatory guidelines in each international region, while
meeting unique customer demands throughout the company’s
global supply chain. It also ensures that someone is responsible
for leading the charge of supporting corporate brand standards
and helps to remove the threat of mislabeling.
of respondents believe the
number of people involved in
labeling will increase in the
next three years
63%
of respondents believe
labeling today is more
important than it has been
90%
believe labeling will
be as or more important
three years from now
98%
6CUSTOMER-SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS
CONTINUE TO DRIVE LABEL CHANGES
With nearly 60% of those polled reporting that their customer specific labeling requirements have increased
since last year, it is clear that labeling requirements are more demanding and variable than ever. To meet
these demands, organizations must be able to efficiently manage complex, variable data and formatting
on their labels and do so quickly. However, to meet these standards labeling needs to be both dynamic
and data-driven. Companies are striving to meet customer specific requirements in an efficient and timely
manner.
MEETING UNIQUE AND VARIABLE LABELING REQUIREMENTS
Customers are demanding that their vendors meet a wide range of unique and variable labeling requirements
including formats, barcodes, labels, languages and data attributes. In response, vendor companies are
implementing integrated, automated labeling solutions so that their customer’s requirements can be met
dynamically without forcing the manual oversight that often causes labeling inconsistency and errors across
the supply chain. Without the ability to meet customer demands, businesses are faced with fines, customer
dissatisfaction and even loss of business.
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7PROVIDING THE FLEXIBILITY TO CREATE AND UPDATE
LABELS
When it comes to managing the label creation and update
process, companies need to enable business users to manage
label design. Companies report that they need labeling
solutions to provide business users the flexibility to create
and update labels to meet evolving requirements in a timely
manner to improve customer responsiveness while eliminating
dependencies on scarce IT resources. To further aid in the
labeling process, they are leveraging What You See Is What You
Get (WYSIWYG) design and browser-based capabilities enabling
business users to streamline the label design and approval
process.
ENABLING RAPID LABEL CHANGE AND CUSTOMER
RESPONSIVENESS
Companies today are faced with complexities and variations
in labeling that they didn’t need to deal with in the past. What’s
more, responsiveness to these increasing demands has become
paramount. Without a labeling approach that enables rapid label
change globally, companies are forced to maintain countless
permutations of labels, all which must be created and maintained
separately. This results in more expense in maintaining labels and
a lack of consistency. Configurable business logic allows users to
quickly and easily support new customer requirements, enabling
label formatting and content to be changed dynamically.
of respondents find customer
specific labeling requirements to
be very or extremely important
80%
indicate that inability to
meet customer specific
labeling requirements limits
new business opportunities
60%
believe customer labeling
requirements will be as or more
important three years from now
98%
8DATA-DRIVEN LABELING IS IMPERATIVE TO
COMPLY WITH GLOBAL REGULATIONS
Regulations and the speed at which they change are continuing to have a significant impact on businesses
today. With new standards and regulations dictating requirements across a wide range of industries, labeling
has become a critical function for meeting compliance. However, constant change is necessary to comply
with evolving requirements. Therefore, labeling must be both dynamic and data-driven for companies to
quickly respond and avoid fines, supply chain disruptions and even loss of business. Evolving regulations
continue to impact business.
REGULATIONS CONTINUE TO EXPAND RAPIDLY
The effect of regulations and emerging standards continue to impact businesses globally. There are a
vast array of evolving regulations, which span across a wide range of industries such as chemical, food
and beverage, medical device, and pharmaceutical and electronics. Some of the leading regulations
and standards that are shaping the future of labeling in today’s global supply chain include GS1, Globally
Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), Drug Supply Chain Security Act
(DSCSA), Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive (RoHS), EU1169, Food Safety Modernization Act
(FSMA) and Unique Device Identification (UDI).
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9of respondents believe
regulatory labeling
requirements will be more
important three years from now
99%
REGULATIONS REQUIRE CONSTANT CHANGE
As regulatory requirements increase, companies must find
efficient ways to showcase unique data attributes and formatting
standards including character level formatting, pictograms and
other regulatory content. Additionally, data elements must appear
in specific locations, and new standards dictate which languages
need to be applied to labels, based on where goods are traveling
though the supply chain. Connecting labeling with enterprise
applications allows companies to standardize mission-critical
labeling, while maximizing existing investments to easily manage
regulatory variations. Integration to sources of truth for label
data ensures consistency and accuracy to quickly respond to
evolving regulatory standards. This ultimately assists companies
in achieving compliance in order to avoid fines, supply chain
disruptions and ultimately loss of business.
REGIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF GLOBAL REGULATIONS
Many regions across the globe maintain or are developing their
own specific set of standards. These distinct requirements
further complicate the regulatory landscape and must be met
if companies want to do business in a specific market. For
instance, the GHS is a set of international regulations, established
by the United Nations, for handling chemicals. However, in the
US, Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has
outlined the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to meet
these regulations, and in EU there is Classification of Labeling
& Packaging (CLP) to address GHS. Without the capability to
address specific requirements of each region, companies stand
the risk of non-compliance and ultimately may disrupt their
existing supply chain and limit their ability to scale their business
into new markets.
believe that inability to meet
regulatory requirements will
result in penalties and fines
45%
believe that inability to meet
regulatory requirements will result
in loss of business
41%
CLOSED
10
EMERGING DEPLOYMENT PLATFORMS
IMPACT LABELING
Cloud and other emerging technology platforms continue to revolutionize the way companies conduct
business and execute business processes. As companies continue to think differently about how
applications will be delivered, they are at the same time beginning to think differently about how labeling is
incorporated with their business and deployment models.
CENTRALIZING GLOBAL LABELING EFFORTS
Businesses are centralizing labeling to improve consistency across their supply chain. Using a centralized
deployment platform offers great flexibility, providing complete control over how capabilities are deployed
over a global landscape. Leveraging a modern, multi-tier labeling solution also provides scalability and
flexibility for creating and updating labels. Centralizing also ensures that labels adhere to corporate
standards. It also gives organizations more flexibility to support business continuity so they are able to
shift label production from one site to another rapidly, while levergaing the data in order to keep the
supply chain flowing.
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EMERGING HYBRID DEPLOYMENT MODELS
Companies seeking global deployment for labeling are utilizing
browser-based applications, which can dramatically reduce
the burden of installing and maintaining labeling systems at
individual locations. In addition to allowing companies to provide
access while maintaining central control, new models designed
to support high availability and failover are being adopted by
enterprise labeling solution providers. These models enable
central control over administration and key elements like label
templates to ensure consistency while allowing for autonomous
operations at a location or plant level. At the same time the
approach offers flexibility to support centralized deployments
that are configured to failover to local instances to ensure
uninterrupted labeling at the location or plant level.
TECHNOLOGY’S IMPACT ON LABELING DEPLOYMENT
Technology continues to revolutionize the way companies
conduct business and execute business processes. Cloud-
based computing offers endless possibilities for outsourcing
applications and computing infrastructure. Some companies are
looking to integrate labeling with existing cloud-based systems or
are looking for solutions that can be part of the adoption of this
deployment model. The cloud model provides flexibility to scale,
eliminates the need for extensive disaster recovery plans and
provides automatic software updates. Cloud and browser-based
applications dramatically reduce the burden of installing and
maintaining labeling systems. They allow companies to enable
users with secure and instant access to functionality and label
status while streamlining management of global operations.
of enterprise applications being
deployed in the next three years will
be deployed in the Cloud
63%
of respondents prefer their
barcode labeling software to
be deployed centrally
52%
Nearly half of respondents are
standardizing on a single barcode
labeling software solution
50%
Loftware, Inc. (www.loftware.com) is the global market leader in Enterprise Labeling
Solutions with more than 5,000 customers in over 100 countries. Offering the industry’s most
comprehensive labeling solution, Loftware’s enterprise software integrates SAP®, Oracle® and
other enterprise applications to produce mission-critical barcode labels, documents, and RFID
Smart tags across the supply chain. Loftware’s design, native print, and built-in business rules
functionality drives topline revenue, increases customer satisfaction, and maximizes supply
chain efficiency for customers. With over 25 years of industry leadership, Loftware’s Enterprise
Labeling Solutions and best practices enable leading companies to meet their customer-specif-
ic and regulatory requirements with unprecedented speed and agility.
PORTSMOUTH, NH, US • GERMANY • UK • SINGAPORE WWW.LOFTWARE.COM
2016 Top 5 Trends in Enterprise Labeling
Our third annual top 5 trends in enterprise labeling report outlines some of the recent shifts in labeling that impact global supply chains. These trends, which include color printing, the rise of global regulations, the proliferation of customer-specific labeling requirements, emerging deployment platforms, and the evolution of labeling as a functional position in global organizations, are based on feedback from leading global companies and the “2016 enterprise labeling trends survey.”
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