FOR CINCINNATI-BASED ENERGY-EFFICIENT LIGHTing specialist LSI Industries Inc., the LED (light-emitting
diode) revolution has brought both challenges and opportunities. On the plus side, it’s been good for LSI’s LED-based fixtures business, kicking demand into high gear. On
the downside, it has introduced
some complications to the back
end of the operation.
One area that was feeling the
strain was product labeling. As
LSI’s lighting division continued
to expand its product offerings
and customer base, the company found it increasingly challenging to manage the vast and
growing number of safety labels
required for its electrical products. Essentially, the division
needed a way to make the process more efficient. So a couple
years back, it launched a search
for a solution that would streamline the task.
As for what it wanted in a new
system, LSI had a pretty clear
idea of its requirements. For
instance, it wanted the capacity to print labels from multiple
locations as well as to proactively
manage—and comply with—ongoing and emerging product safety requirements. But most of all, LSI was seeking a
way to simplify the labor-intensive process of maintaining
and updating its label files.
“Over the years, we had developed thousands of labels
that required a serious commitment in time and effort to
maintain,” said Tom Cantrell, LSI’s manager of product
and manufacturing support, in prepared remarks. “We
were looking to reduce the time spent maintaining these
files.”
LSI found the solution it sought in two software packages
from Teklynx International, a Whitefish Bay, Wis.-based
bar-code and radio-frequency identification (RFID) label-
ing software developer. The first, Codesoft, is a bar-code
label design system that can be integrated with the custom-
er’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Linking
its label design software with its ERP would allow LSI to
eliminate static label files—along
with the associated ongoing
maintenance of those files—and
replace them with database-driv-
en templates.
The second, Sentinel, is a label
printing automation solution
that enables users to centrally
print on hundreds of printers
at the same time. With the new
software, LSI would be able to
print labels at multiple facilities,
with plenty of capacity to accommodate future growth.
By implementing the new soft-
ware, LSI says it has:
For his part, Cantrell says the new solution has made label
management far more efficient. “Say I need to change the
word ‘luminaire’ to ‘fixture,’” he said. “Now I can change it
in one place instead of going through all those files. And we
can incorporate any of the outlying facilities in addition to
the corporate office, so it gives me a wealth of opportunity
to standardize processes and share our knowledge base.”
Lighting manufacturer turns to Teklynx software to streamline the production of its safety labels.
Making light work of labeling
