Pen Project: Labeled a Success - Leading pen manufacturer reduces cost and increases packaging-line efficiency

摘要

Check around on your desk, the office supply cabinet or the reception area. Chances are you'll find a Pilot pen. Pilot Pen Corporation of America, Trumbull, Connecticut, operates three distribution facilities in Trumbull; Fremont, California; and Guadalajara, Mexico, along with a manufacturing and distribution center in Jacksonville, Florida. It was on the packaging line at its Jacksonville facility that Eric Brown, engineer, saw an opportunity to do his part to contribute to the company's bottom line. The company had been labeling flat shipping cartons manually with preprinted labels. The labels were either applied to both sides of the flat cartons or with a vertical flat box labeler, one side at a time. Pilot Pen stocked 353 stock-keeping units of preprinted label rolls. So many different labels were required that it kept a production planner busy for half a day preprinting labels.