PG&WIP has been able to eliminate human error from its product coding process by working with Domino’s all-inclusive technologies.
The Swedish fixtures and fittings manufacturer marks more than 20 million aluminium, plastic and paper items annually for a major Swedish furniture company. To meet the track and trace requirements of their high-profile customer, all parts need to be coded with a production site number. The mounting instructions, the consumer package, the multipack and finally the pallet also need to be coded.
With the aim of building a highly automated production facility with the latest technology, PG&WIP were keen to automate as much of the coding process as possible. This resulted in them moving from their existing supplier to Domino who were able to provide a printing solution that met all their needs.
PG&WIP Technical Manager and co-partner Håkan Östangård said: “With our focus on new technology and innovation, we found Domino’s automated solution a perfect fit for our business.”
Automating the coding process
PG&WIP uses Domino’s newest CIJ Printer, the Ax350i to code its subcontractor number on all handles on kitchen fittings. The products mounting instructions are marked by a G-Series and the consumer packaging is labelled using the M230i-T4. This is mounted on a sliding crossbar to label three products next to each other with one machine.
Smaller curtain mount details are also coded with an ink jet solution from Domino and then placed in plastic flexible packaging marked by Domino TTO printer, V320i. All consumer packages are then placed in multipacks and marked with the C6000, a large-character coder for secondary packaging, before the M230i-P150 applies pallet labels. The data on the labels is then sent to the existing ERP system.
Pallets are scanned before being picked up by automatic forklifts and placed into trucks. By doing this, the number of errors has significantly been reduced and all data is stored for full traceability in the ERP system.
Domino’s QuickDesign package seamlessly feeds into PG&WIP’s existing ERP system, resulting in removing human error from its code selection process. Using the configurable operator interface, operators can now select any product on an iPad and QuickDesign then send the relevant information to all machines in the facility, ensuring all products are correctly coded.
Speaking of the process, Håkan Östangård said: “Adopting Domino’s all-inclusive approach to our coding output has had a significant impact on the growth of the company and we are currently turning over €800,000 per employee.”
PG&WIP have also signed up to Domino’s SafeSupply, providing a fixed-rate for the consumables it needs to keep its production going. As a result, stocks can be carefully monitored minimizing unplanned downtime which can be expensive.