Creating added value through flawless production of high-end packaging solutions
Once started as a traditional printing business, the St-Luc Labels&Packaging group now holds 4 branches based in Belgium, France and The Netherlands. Its one-stop-shopping concept integrates the complete design and production process for labels, packaging, shrinksleeves, pouches, filmic products and prescription or instruction leaflets. Hard work and smart reinvestments have led to a state-of-the-art machine park and a highly integrated workflow, the foundations of true success story.
Sven Verhulst, Project Manager at St-Luc takes us back to the very beginning. “During the 1990’s, a shift in the comparative value between label and packaging production and traditional printing orders marked a new direction for St-Luc Labels&Packaging. In need of expansion due to the completely different manufacturing process in label production and offset printing, Microbox Packaging France was the first to join the St-Luc Labels&Packaging group. Throughout the years St-Luc consistently expanded its label and packaging product range, building its distinctive one-stop-shop approach. However, growing together with the St-Luc Labels&Packaging group and its expanding offer, was the need for an integrated system to efficiently manage this new workflow from order to finish.”
“With the implementation of CERM MIS, we finally got an integrated system that’s tailored to the needs of a label and packaging printers specific needs. Where we used to process everything manually, all job estimates are now calculated by a centralized system taking into account all following work steps.”
Sven Verhulst, Project Manager at St-Luc Labels&Packaging
This newfound efficiency and the expansion of the St-Luc Labels&Packaging group inadvertently led to new investments”, Sven continues. “Production got extended with a new and additional line of flexo-presses. Allowing to increase print speed and wider format printing, heavily improving the overall productivity. In order to maintain its flawless production of high-end packaging solutions for its customers, the implementation of an integrated ink management system had become imminent.”
The GSE Ink Manager automatically synchronises all ink recipes to the CERM Software which allows to link product colours with an according ink recipe. After entering sales orders in the CERM MIS, production jobs are generated resulting in an automated export of ink requirements for that job to the GSE system. Based on these requirements the GSE ink dispensing system will dispense per printing colour the required amount of ink using the correct recipe. For each scheduled job there is an immediate overview of recipe-availability in CERM MIS.
A similar conclusion made by Sven Verhulst, “Manually setting all color recipes in between print jobs is a slow and error-prone process. Integrating our complete workflow allows us to connect all different systems and build one interactive framework. Saving time and avoiding errors.”
Special thanks to Sven Verhulst for the interview.
For more information on St-Luc Labels&Packaging: https://www.stluc.be
