LabelWorks Pro100 enables smart use of space for increased storage capacity

The Büroring Group was faced with the challenge of increasing the storage capacity of its central warehouse near Düsseldorf, without actually expanding the space it had available

As part of this major undertaking, the company produced thousands of new warehouse labels using the versatile LabelWorks Pro100 label printer. The warehouse maintains a constant stock of over 12,000 office items – everything from paperclips to paper, forms and computer hardware, plus a wide range of consumables and complete office setups – and delivers anywhere in the country within 24 hours.

As a result of the success of the business, space in the central warehouse is getting tight, according to Büroring's Logistics Project Manager, Carsten Speckenbach. "As we want to stay in this location, we had to restructure our current storage space," explains Speckenbach. 
There are a number of other warehouse restructuring measures planned, all designed to increase the speed at which items can be accessed, and to automate this process. A crucial step is to add the details of the new and changed storage areas to the warehouse management system, and to label them so that they can be scanned during the stocking and picking process.

"Previously, we had warehouse labels printed by an external printing company," explains Carsten von Hüth from the procurement department at Büroring. "Sometimes, we had to wait a long time for the labels to arrive. This was why we decided to start making labels in-house on our own printer, so that we could access the labels we needed more rapidly, save money and increase our flexibility."

In its search for a suitable printing system, the company drew up a specific set of requirements. It needed its labels to stand the test of time. The shape, colour and material of the warehouse labels, and their ability to be scanned, were important factors too.

Following a selection process that examined printing systems from various manufacturers, the company opted for the Epson Pro100. This printer is capable of producing labels measuring 50 mm in height, in line with Büroring's specifications. The printer is also compatible with a yellow label material, which the company uses to print its labels in black on a yellow background.

Büroring's labels achieve an even longer service life if the company uses the Pro100 to print onto plastic tape. As Carsten Speckenbach explains, "Coloured tapes and backing material are easy to insert into the device, and the tape feed process is simple and problem-free. With a resolution of 300dpi, the print is clear and distortion-free, which means that the barcodes printed on the labels will be easy to scan later on."

The company is also impressed by the Epson Label Editor software supplied with the system. Easy to install and intuitive to operate via a user-friendly menu, the software makes it easy to design a label on a PC. Another handy feature of the Label Editor software is that it can read data from MS Excel spreadsheets that store comprehensive information on individual items as they are scanned into the warehouse.

"The various pieces of data can be individually selected and added to a ready-made template layout, which makes the whole process of printing warehouse labels very simple," says Speckenbach. An automatic trimmer cuts the finished labels to size, which makes it easy to print large runs of labels.