DC Velocity - July 2018

The pace of change in the warehousing
and distribution arena seems to
accelerate daily.
ID Label CEO
and President
Neil Johnston
discusses
key trends
occurring in
today’s market.

Q: What are some key areas
impacting barcoding and
labeling today?

JOHNSTON: You can’t understate the impact of e-commerce on the warehousing space. There’s been a huge increase in SKUs and inventory volumes in these facilities. Yesterday’s processes for managing inventory and throughput are under pressure as warehouse managers try to keep pace with rising expectations for rapid order fulfillment. It can be a real challenge if your systems and processes aren’t up to par.

Today’s modern warehouses are smart, automated and efficient, often employing sophisticated warehouse management software. Barcoding technology, labels and signage are a key part of making all that work. Each facility is different, so your barcoding solutions need to match your environment and objectives.

Q: Among ID Label clients,
what key trends have you
observed recently?

JOHNSTON: There’s a growing need for flexibility in labeling rack storage locations.

Warehouse operators want more leeway to slot their products in a way that maximizes use of space and improves picking efficiencies whenever they can. That can mean a greater need to relabel pallet locations with more frequency than was typically done in the past due to changes in product demand, higher return volumes or seasonal requirements, for instance.

Scraping off old barcode labels and preparing beams for relabeling can be tedious and hugely unproductive. Our customers are asking us for labeling solutions to accommodate this need for location flexibility. Beam Renew™, our rack cover-up solution, and Clean Release™, our new repositionable label, are two products we designed to address this. They’ve been incredibly well received.

Q: What recommendations do
you have for companies planning
new facilities?

JOHNSTON: With all the new warehouse construction occurring, we’re seeing high demand for turnkey installation services.

For every installation project, we provide complete planning and project management services. This includes material and layout recommendations and data file creation and management. We use our own team of ID Label employees—not temp workers—to ensure the job is done right.

It’s a full-service solution – and our customers love it. It’s one less headache to worry about on these large, complex projects. We like to say: when we do the barcodes, you can do more!

Q: Finally, can you comment on
some of the barcode product trends
you recommend warehouse
operators explore?

JOHNSTON: We’re seeing an increase in
use of two-dimensional barcodes. Traditional
linear – or 1D – barcodes contain a limited
amount of information, roughly the equivalent
of up to 20 characters. Two-dimensional – or
2D – barcodes, on the other hand, can store
thousands of characters of information because
they encode data vertically and horizontally.

We’re also seeing some significant advances in label materials. Today, with the adhesives we use, we can custom-design a label like Clean Release to be permanent, temporary, removable, repositionable.

We’ve got solutions optimized for ambient temperatures and freezer environments. For exposure to extreme heat during manufacturing. For outdoor conditions with extended exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. For warehouse floors that are subjected to heavy traffic from forklifts, carts and workers.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

That’s why we make sure we understand the environment in which the label will be used and the surface the label needs to adhere to before we recommend an appropriate solution.