CCL’s group vice president, of healthcare and specialty, Lee Prestell put a finer point on it during a panel discussion hosted by HP during Labelexpo Europe 2023.

 

‘If we can’t find people, we need to find suppliers that can make it so we don’t need as many people,’ he says. ‘Automation happens in small steps, but we’re really going to push our suppliers hard on this. We can’t afford to throw more people at production uptime because we don’t have any more people to throw at it.’

 

Automation was undoubtedly the key talking point at Labelexpo Europe 2023. It’s clear Labelexpo exhibitors in the workflow and inspection category took note of converters’ critical need to produce faster, leaner and smarter as the industry moves to an end‐to‐end digitized and agile workflow.

 

MORE THAN MACHINES

 

Automation isn’t just about the machinery. Perhaps more critically, workflow software provides the backbone of a seamless production line.

 

‘Automation is often linked to hardware, but where I think there’s still a lot of opportunity is automating in the front end,’ said Esko’s marketing director Jan de Roeck. ‘A big part of the automation story is getting the press ready. If we do a good job in the beginning, the less work we have to do further into the production cycle. An error becomes more expensive the later in the printing process it occurs. That’s why it’s so important to automate your process and standardize your workflow.’

 

He continues: ‘Error and waste reduction have a direct impact on the environmental footprint of packaging businesses. With sustainability and digitalization fundamentally altering how the industry operates, it is imperative that today’s label and packaging companies invest in digital workflow technology that enables them to boost efficiency, reduce costs and improve their overall productivity.’