Epson US
Epson’s distribution facility in the Indianapolis suburb of Plainfield, Ind. houses its warehousing and distribution operations, a repair depot and sales of parts and accessories. The 750,000-square-foot facility with 200 dock doors sees a tremendous amount of movement, day in and day out. Over 25 million pieces and nearly two million orders are shipped out of the facility every year, each requiring a label to be printed for outbound shipping.
For decades, the Epson facility had been using thermal transfer printers for labeling operations, which had plenty of opportunities for improvement due to the lack of color capability and frequent jams, resulting in downtime. Oftentimes, packages needed to be visually marked for sorting or processing, and because the thermal printers being used could not print color, it required secondary steps to apply color or manually mark the package. The operations team also found it difficult to change thermal ribbons because it required getting the ribbon completely smooth across the roller. Plus, they complained about the rising prices of thermal labels and ribbons.
The transition to the ColorWorks C6000P printers and integrating color capabilities, when complete, will help augment operational efficiency, reduce the chance of fines due to unscannable labels and simplify labeling processes in the distribution center.
