Inkjet & Digital Printing
Herbalife chooses Domino for ongoing coding investment
Tuesday 12. April 2011 - Global nutrition company Herbalife Ltd is choosing Dominos A-Series - the worlds best selling continuous ink jet (CIJ) printer - for its coding needs at its EMEA distribution centre in Venray, Netherlands. Internationally renowned for its wide product range that includes protein shakes and snacks, vitamins, dietary supplements and personal care products, the company distributes its products through approximately 2.1 million distributors in 74 countries, with net retail sales of $2.7 billion in 2010.
So, when the production team decided to invest in new coding equipment, they wanted reliable devices that could offer high quality at a competitive price, while being able to comply with industry coding legislation.
Michel Massop, assembly department supervisor at Herbalifes EMEA distribution centre explains: “We code batch codes, expiry dates, shop order numbers, 2D codes, country-specific and promotional text onto a range of products on five production lines. In order to ensure minimum downtime and reliable coding, we decided to replace our previous coders that were outdated and unable to keep up with our production requirements.”
Herbalife tested a wide range of relevant CIJ printers on the market that could code 2D codes and provide the facility to code directly from a database for greater security on automated lines. It also had to be able to code at variable speeds of up to 30 metres/min, which equates to as many as 1500 products per hour.
“We initially installed two Domino A-Series coders onto our production lines, and the results were so positive that we placed an order for two more with a plan to replace the rest of our coders over the next few months,” continues Michel.
“Since installing the Domino equipment, downtime associated with our coding operations has been reduced to virtually zero, while our ink usage is also considerably less – we are seeing savings of around 30%. We have also been impressed by the coders flexibility and ease of use with its touch screen. Before, only one trained operator in our department was able to work with the coding devices, but with Domino every member of the team is able to do so.”
Herbalife is seeing a growing number of orders originate from the internet. In turn, this has motivated the company to investigate new and innovative ways of using CIJ as an additional measure to guard against counterfeiting and to help customers, particularly those purchasing via the internet, to verify their products.
Says Massop, “We are pleased with our decision to go with Domino and the good relationship we have established with the team. The customer service combined with the product quality and cost savings have exceeded our expectations.”