Siemens began using Loftware’s solution in 2012. Looking to standardize on-demand label printing in its factories, the Manufacturing Operations Service Delivery department selected Loftware as the best-practice solution and made it the company’s centralized platform for label production and printing. The department started offering Loftware as a service called IRIS to other business units within the company. Currently, 27 factories use IRIS to print over 1,600 labels per week on 1,249 printers. The factories operate in four different business units, in six countries in Europe and in China.
Siemens Digital Industries factory in Chengdu, China used a homegrown labeling solution to cover its label design and printing needs. However, the increasing demand for QR code printing – which the homegrown system did not support – and the need for labeling system upgrades prompted Siemens Chengdu, and its sister factory in Hamburg, Germany, to implement IRIS.
We wanted a label design interface that is more friendly and easier to operate, with labels placed in a central location.
Yang, Sun Feng
IT Engineer, Sanford
One of Siemens Chengdu’s goals was to make it easier for employees to design labels. In the former labeling system, employees used the label designer that was integrated with the print interface to design labels. If a layout needed be changed, the person in charge of each product would edit the label and store it in a shared folder. Each printer had its own label template reference path, and there was no centralized version management or approval process. The Product Manager would have to save a copy of the changed labels to each printer’s file path. This manual process increased the risk of errors, as it was easy to overlook a printer.
Now, employees can use Loftware’s built-in label designer to design and manage the company’s product and packaging labels, as well as serial number and special labels. Labels are stored centrally, and the entire review and approval process is managed via the document management system, which provides built-in version control.
Loftware’s label designer also supports common label objects and complex label scripts, so Siemens Chengdu can meet the needs of product engineers responsible for label design. Loftware also supports QR code printing, which was another requirement.
Siemens Chengdu also wanted to manage its printers centrally and have a complete label print history. With Loftware, the company can monitor printer status remotely and get a detailed history of every label printed, including who printed it, where it was printed and when.
Siemens Chengdu’s no longer had technical support for its homegrown labeling system. This meant they couldn’t upgrade the software to meet changing cybersecurity requirements. Now, with Loftware, the DI IT team can provide technical support to the factories, and any product updates are supported by Loftware, all while meeting Siemens’ security requirements.
