Overlooked Opportunities: Barcoded Labels Bring Value to Brunswick

Barcoded warehouse labels produced by Brunswick Printing Solutions. | Credit: Brunswick Printing Solutions

Outboard motors have a lot of parts, and each of those is stored in a warehouse, marked with a barcoded label. Mike Schrader knows that very well. For nearly 40 years he has worked for marine engine manufacturer Mercury Marine, now part of Brunswick Corp. in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

His nine-employee in-plant, Brunswick Printing Solutions, prints all the materials that go along with Mercury Outboards, including operation manuals, and also handles mailing and shipping. But, he notes, for years there was one product still being outsourced: warehouse labels.

“The company had been contracting with an outside supplier to print barcoded labels that hang in the parts warehouse identifying what part was in each bay,” notes Schrader, Printing & Mailing Solutions Manager. “They were not happy with the cost and the service with that outside company, and they had a LSS Black Belt look into better options. That was in 2017, and we have been printing barcoded labels from 3x1" to 3x2ˈ ever since. All the smaller labels are either printed on a sheet that has multiple kiss-cut labels on it, or a 12x18" sheet of labels that we cut to size after they are printed. All the larger labels are printed on our wide-format machine.”

Mike Schrader

The shop uses its Epson SureColor S30670 eco-solvent printer for all labels larger than 12x18". Smaller labels are printed on vinyl adhesive stock on a Xerox iGen 5.

In the beginning, the in-plant used a plugin for Microsoft Word called TBarCode, but after expanding to larger quantities of labels, the shop switched to more robust software to manage the process.

“We found that it had difficulties creating thousands of barcodes at a time, so we switched to our variable data software, PrintShop Mail, and have had no issues ever since,” Schrader notes. “Since we already had the software and the printing equipment to print the labels, we virtually had no start-up cost.”

The in-plant doesn’t need to market the service, Schrader notes, since it is already on good terms with the inventory analysts who need that specific service. But the result, Schrader says, is that “we are able to give the company a better value on this service — we are quicker and less expensive than the alternative.”

If your parent organization needs barcodes and labels, Schrader offers this advice: “Get a good understanding of the type of barcodes the company uses, and then how your software can create them effectively and efficiently. Talk to the warehouse people in your facilities, as I am sure most places use some kind of barcode inventory system.”

Barcode labels is an overlooked print opportunity just waiting to be tapped.