NiceLabel – Positive Identification in the Supply Chain
There are many challenges that supply chain companies' face on a daily basis. Those challenges include streamlining processes for maximum output, positive identification of items, tracking inventory, optimizing shipping and receiving, etc. In the end, the main goal is to reduce cost to make operations as efficient and profitable as possible. This Sales Tip will walk you through using NiceLabel to get through some of these challenges.
Connectivity
There are a number of different technologies that can be integrated into supply chain management systems. Hardware such as mobile computers, print-apply machines, production computers and various printing technologies such as laser printers, tabletop thermal printers and mobile printers. There many points of connectivity that may need to be addressed with printing systems being one of the most variable.
Cost Control
Every company, big or small, wants to control costs, especially in lean times. However, each type of system that is integrated into the larger data management system requires licensing, maintenance and support. Software licensing models that penalize the user for the amount of printers that are deployed will increase the total cost of ownership for a system, pushing out the ROI.
Labeling for Positive Identification
Positive identification in the supply chain is critical to workflow reliability and efficiency. The items that you send out your door need a label with a barcode and/or RFID tag to be accurately traced. Many times, these identification labels require conformance to a compliance standard. Removing the learning curve for compliance labeling becomes imperative.
How can I use NiceLabel to overcome these challenges?
The NiceLabel product family contains a wide range of products that can be used to achieve any bar code identification requirement.
With the NiceLabel Standard Series product line, the following products and modules can be used independently or in combination to create an identification system:
- NiceLabel Pro – Visual label designer used to layout label templates that will be printed.
- NiceLabel Suite –Includes NiceLabel Pro and the NiceForm module to develop a user friendly front-end application that will allow users to enter in data to be printed. Also included is the NiceWatch module which is an automated print server that receives incoming data from supply chain management systems to trigger the printing a label template.
With the NiceLabel Enterprise Series product line the following products can be used:
- NiceLabel Print Center – Allows you to setup concurrent licensing for NiceLabel Standard Series Products
- Uses NiceLabel Suite and all included modules as the client interface
- Enterprise Print Manager (EPM) – A centralized browser-based management application. The EPM enables the user to view a centralized log for all printing activity, document storage, web printing capabilities to print all labels that are centrally stored, redirect print jobs, as well as alerting to notify someone if/when an error happens.
- NiceWatch Enterprise Business Connector – The Business Connector provides high-throughput printing by receiving incoming data from, not only legacy systems, but also SAP and Oracle through our certified interfaces.
Additional Options Provided by NiceLabel Products
NiceLabel also offers many different capabilities that help end users manage and secure their printing network.
- Role-based user access - NiceLabel has its own user management system that allows administrators to setup roles for users and groups. NiceLabel User management can be linked into Windows Active Directory to control access to printing resources.
- Logging - Logging is used to track print job history from any NiceLabel product, giving you the ability to reprint labels as well. NiceForm also contains an action to view the log file, making it very easy to allow the users to reprint labels as needed.
- Nice Print Queue - The NicePrintQueue module gives users advanced control over the printers installed on their workstation. More importantly, the NicePrintQueue module works with the logging capabilities to move jobs from one printer to another.
Cost and Profitability
It is important to realize that printing systems do not have to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Using NiceLabel products, an enterprise printing solution (with support and maintenance contracts) could easily be a fraction of the cost of competitive systems.
Conclusion
We have outlined some of the various ways that you can use NiceLabel to create a fully functional and cost effective printing system; however, we have just scratched the surface. Every environment requires special attention to detail and Niceware has the staff with the knowledge to get you where you need to be. Call your regional sales representative today to see how NiceLabel products can help you or visit our website for more Supply Chain information!
