Claas Steigüber on , updated
As Factry works almost exclusively for the process industry, you’ve probably read quite a few articles about improving product quality or production efficiency using our products. However, in the world of modern production, the work does not stop once an item has been produced. Far from it actually…
Items need to be transported within the plant, be shipped out to resellers, or depending on the industry even straight to end users. Aside from the logistics involved in all of that, items also need to be traceable. Both during the production process and after it leaves the plant, companies need to be able to track their items. And to do all of that, items should be clearly identifiable and show all necessary tracking info in a consistent manner. In other words, they need to be labeled.
One of the most popular labeling tools at the moment is BarTender. In this blogpost we’ll take a look at how and why we’ve integrated BarTender with our own MES, FactryOS.
Correct labeling is crucial in the production industry as it ensures that products are accurately identified, tracked, and managed throughout the supply chain.
Labels provide critical information such as product specifications, safety guidelines, and compliance certifications, which are essential for quality control and regulatory adherence.
However, human errors can creep into the labeling process due to factors like manual data entry mistakes, misinterpretation of specifications, or inconsistent labeling practices. These errors can lead to production delays, costly recalls, or even safety risks if mislabeled products reach consumers. Implementing automated systems and rigorous checks can significantly reduce such risks and maintain production efficiency.
One of these systems is specialised labeling software such as BarTender.
BarTender is software used for designing and printing labels, barcodes, RFID tags, and other types of variable data. It’s commonly used in industries such as manufacturing, retail, and logistics for creating professional labeling solutions.
The software allows users to design templates, integrate with databases, and print on a variety of label printers. One of the biggest advantages of the software is that end-users no longer have to contact their software providers for changes.
Being a relatively new software package, most of the FactryOS developers still vividly remember the early days when FactryOS wasn’t as expansive and integrated as it is today.
Label printing was one of the functionalities that used to be very different in the past. And let’s just say it has been improved a lot over the past few years…
In the early days label printing was mostly hard coded. This meant we had to trigger the printing of labels on certain events within FactryOS. Which resulted in very limited design options and even worse flexibility for us and for the users, as every tiny edit had to be made directly in the code.
Every time our users wanted a slight change to the way the label looked (e.g. the bar code a bit more to the top right, or additional data below it) they had to send us a change request form. This meant extra work for the developers that had to be planned in and executed in a timely manner. They then had to adjust the label design accordingly to the request in our code base.
Luckily, those days are in the past now. We have made the BarTender integration a standard feature in the list of modular features offered by our MES, FactryOS.
As we mentioned above, this has vastly improved the design options for the labels and has given our users the freedom to design, edit and print their labels without our developers having to spend a second on it.
We’ll give you a quick impression of how the integration works in the current build of FactryOS.
First we have to integrate BarTender into FactryOS so it can connect and fill in all fields that have been created, designed and added to specific labels inside BarTender.
Once this connection has been made, we create http-requests to the BarTender server, to give it the following information:
The id of the library in which BarTender can find the label it should print - BarTender gives the user complete freedom in designing their labels. It also means they can make designs with completely different labels for different products, material, etc. As such, it’s extremely important to select the right labels for the right items. (See image above)
The id of the specific label it should print - Since there are usually multiple labels involved in a production process, we need to clearly indicate which label needs to be used where, using the right label id. (See image above)
The amount of copies - Another important piece of information that needs to be conveyed is the amount of labels that need to be printed. You can set up every field perfectly and connect it to the correct information but if only 500 items in a batch of 1000 have been labeled you have still messed up.
The printer id - Since we’re talking about a production plant and not a simple home office here, it’s pretty important to indicate which printer (every line usually has its own printer) should print which label. You can include as much correctly-sourced information in the label as you want, but it’s all useless if it ends up on the wrong item.
The values for the respective fields to fill in - This will make sure the fields added to the label in the label manager are all correctly filled in with the correct information from the MES.
These labels are created, designed and maintained all within BarTender. This means that there is no longer any need to directly use FactryOS for the creation, design and printing of the labels.
But that does not mean FactryOS is no longer involved at all…
We recently created the dedicated label manager function in FactryOS. This allows the BarTender labels to be consistently and correctly mapped against various values in our system. And once the system is triggered, it automatically sends requests to the BarTender server with the necessary information for printing the needed labels.
Using the new integration, configuring the labels has become a lot easier, and users can edit or create labels in minutes if necessary. In the label manager they can map the label to all the specifications that are expected by the BarTender software.
Each time they register a production step a new label can be printed for the produced material with all the information configured in the label manager. This way we make sure that all produced material is consistently labeled and the information on the label is always correct and up-to-date.
Note: Since every MES project is different and built to the wishes of the client, the trigger for label printing can be chosen by the client, based on their specific setup and needs.
The BarTender integration originally started out as a custom feature for a certain client, who specifically asked us to provide them with a way to connect FactryOS to their existing labeling software BarTender.
After creating and implementing the integration for their setup, both us and the client were pleasantly surprised by the seamless communication between the systems and the overall increase in flexibility. Now, they no longer need our intervention for editing labels or creating new ones, which has made life a lot easier for both parties.
At first we saw this as an interesting project with great results, but we did not immediately see the greater potential. But a few weeks later we found out our next client was also looking for a way to integrate their BarTender system with the MES.
This was the sign we needed to expand our previous project and turn the custom solution into an official modular feature for FactryOS.
As you can see the process for label printing has become a lot easier and more efficient since implementing the label manager.
But nothing is perfect, and there is always room for improvement.
In the future I’d like to add import functionalities to the label manager. This should make it possible to pull all available libraries, their labels and the available printers from BarTender straight into our configuration and our label manager.
This means a significant improvement in the speed of label mapping, and should also further prevent human errors.
Practically speaking I imagine 2 specific options. Either a bulk import of labels or an autocomplete field that can make suggestions for the label name as well as their namespaces according to the available data sourced from BarTender.
But that’s just me… If you are a user of the label manager or would be interested in becoming a user, please let us know what you’d like to see added or expanded!
As a Data Engineer at Factry, I often face the challenge of guiding industrial companies along their Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) journey. These projects have provided me with some interesting experiences and valuable insights, and I’m eager to share what I’ve learned so far.
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