Partnering with a Label and Artwork Management (LAM) System has a number of advantages, including improving process efficiency, increasing your product’s speed-to-market, and dramatically reducing packaging errors. But partnering with BLUE, the experts in label and artwork management, can actually have some surprising consequences; it can be a growth strategy. This is good news for your company, and it can benefit you personally. If you work in pre-media and your job is to manage artwork, BLUE is the perfect solution to eliminate the flaws and frustrations in your current workflow. And if you either work in IT or you’re an executive leader, you can invest in a system that will grow with you long-term.
So how is excellence in artwork and labeling a growth strategy? In a nutshell, it removes the obstacles blocking or stalling revenue streams. We’re not just talking about a system that will save you money in support costs. We’re talking about your artwork and labeling process working at maximum efficiency while becoming significantly better at reducing risks – empowering your team and giving you visibility over the entire process.
A good measure of efficiency is whether you’re getting your products to market on time. You’re aware of how critical it is to hit ship dates and produce product packaging that is 100% correct. Accomplishing this means you’ll have accomplished addition by subtraction. By subtracting the costs and headaches associated with ship date variance, you will have added revenue and efficiency.
Does your company need to reduce cycle times and the number of cycles? Are you able to notice patterns in the reasons why artwork and labels are rejected? Are there individuals in the label and artwork management process who tend to let projects sit for a while before they approve or reject them? Getting your product to market on time requires maximum visibility over the entire process, including what might be causing snags and bottlenecks. Clarity on what needs to be done yields insights into process improvements.
To help you move forward, BLUE developed an Artwork Management Maturity Model. This model will help you assess where your company is and cast a vision for where you want to be.
The first step is to ensure your process is repeatable. What are the important processes you need in place every time you start production on labels and artwork? For example, you probably need to ensure you have a GxP compliant process in place, and documented approvals at key points of control.
The second step is creating a defined level of capability. At this point, executives within the company recognize what the key benefits of working with BLUE are, you have a sponsor team dedicated to the care and development of a sustainable solution, and you’ve gained centralized access to real-time statistics.
Establishing a process by which to manage artwork is the third step. Your process must be developed and codified. At this point, users will be able to complete tasks remotely from anywhere on either laptops or tablets. Your company will now be tracking KPIs in order to continue improving.
Finally, you reach an optimized status. This means your broader organization is using the system in some way and your company is constantly reviewing success metrics using dashboards. When you reach this point, you will be able to manage artwork that achieves results such as 100% accurate labeling data for partners, suppliers, and other key stakeholders. You will be working at maximum efficiency!
