The importance of accurate labeling: ensuring quality and compliance

A bucket of paint is not just a bucket of paint, at least not if you produce 50 million litres of it, and all of it needs to be color coded and subjected to legal requirements. And for a manufacturer like Flügger it's not just a matter of the reputation of a single brand. Flügger is not just one but many brands. Flügger provides retailers and DIY marketplaces alike with private-label brands of their own.

So, the importance of labelling the buckets with the exact color and branding is immense. And to ensure that everything is correct, Flügger uses the Encodify platform to manage their workflows. But this hasn't always been the case. Previously, the process was mostly done manually.

"We would handle the process of printing labels and distributing them in mostly manual ways. We would exchange emails with the graphic designers and anyone involved in the production process. Every time it would take us about two weeks to complete the process and tick off “job done.” Then, we would start the process over again. We are supplying hundreds of stores with paint" says Emma Søgaard Andersen who is the Product & Marketing Coordinator at Flügger.

Getting thelabels correct is extremely important, not just because of branding, but because paint is subject to strict legislation and compliance requirements. This is because it’s essentially a bucket of chemicals. On top of that paint comes with a high number of characteristics and tiny variations. In fact, you would probably need an advanced degree in mathematics to calculate the number of color variations and paint combinations a paint manufacturer needs to keep track of. Even without getting into things like color codes, the material substance of paint can be described on 20 different physical characteristics. Multiply this by the different colors available (and the different ways you can mix those colors for new variations) and you'll start to grasp the complexity of manufacturing and distributing paint.

According to Emma Søgaard Andersen the label is an essential part of the Flügger business, and the process of producing labels is almost as important as the paint itself. In fact, the labels need to be delivered before the product department can start working, so if the labels are delayed, so is the product, and in turn the customer will lose money. Because of this, it's extremely important to Flügger that the workflow is effective and synchronized across all departments.

Every year Flügger produces more than 16 million labels for their paint buckets, and the labels are made in over 1200 variants. These labels are put on 6,200,000 round bucket and more than half a million square buckets.,

Safe to say, getting the labels correct is crucial to Flügger.

"The label is an essential part of the business. And the process of producing the label is equally important. We must ensure labels are delivered in time for our product department to do their job. If someone delays the process, the customer might lose money. So, the workflow has to be effective and synchronised."—Emma Søgaard Andersen, Product & Marketing Coordinator

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The Encodify platform plays a crucial role in managing and coordinating the workflows for Flügger's private label business.

Flügger's customers are some of the largest DIY retailers in Scandinavia and the company's reputation for high-quality products rests on the shoulders of more than 200 years of experience. Keeping the number of errors to a minimum while also maintaining a fast pace is crucial. Printing the correct labels at the right time was always important, but it became easier when Flügger upgraded to the new Encodify platform.

Flügger’s millions of litres of paint come with a label. A content declaration. Creating and managing label designs are jobs that involve several people, in-house and externally as well. Most of the workflows in the creation used to be manual, and emails were the primary communications tool.

But with the Encodify platform, things started to change: Automation, was integrated into the workflow. And, apart from having a better view of every touchpoint in the process, Emma and her team eventually recognized improvements in more areas of their work:

• Time spent is down
• Efficiency is up
• Fewer errors occur
• Less proofreading
• Automated notifications

All resulting in a production time of one week. Previously, the production time would be up to two weeks. In other words, Flügger is supplying its private label customers with the correct labels faster.

Before the upgrade, it was more difficult for Emma to keep track of the entire process. After implementing Encodify, a dashboard was introduced which greatly improved visibility, as Emma recalls: "It was great. The design is cool, and suddenly I had an entirely new grasp of the process. I could easily identify where we had jobs to be completed and outstanding issues. It was—and still is—a totally different world."

Suddenly, Emma and her team have more time to put towards other tasks—or to increase their output when they need to. For instance, Flügger experienced a surge in demand during the first half of 2020, and revenue in the second quarter of 2020 grew by 16%. Looking back, the implementation of the Encodify platform happened just in time to meet the increased demand.

"The Encodify platform is not free of charge, but it is money well spent. We spend far fewer hours on updates and new labels. As soon as we started onboarding everyone involved in the workflow, we immediately saw time savings and fewer errors."—Emma Søgaard Andersen, Product & Marketing Coordinator