Solutions

Automotive & Industrial Goods.

An automotive supplier does not have a labeling standard. It has as many as it has customers, and each one is entitled to reject a shipment that arrives with the wrong barcode symbology in the wrong field.

What makes it hard.

The customer owns the format.

Every OEM publishes its own label specification, down to field positions and barcode symbology. Shipping to several means producing several formats from one set of shipment data.

Traceability reaches the part.

Component-level identification and genealogy are what make a recall a bounded event rather than an unbounded one. That depends on identifiers applied and recorded at the point of manufacture.

Change control is audited.

IATF 16949 expects documented change management, and a label is part of the product's configuration. An unlogged label change is an audit finding.

Line speed is unforgiving.

Labels are applied in sequence with production. A system that cannot print and verify at rate gets worked around, and the controls get worked around with it.

The rulebook

What you answer to.

The regulations and standards that govern labeling in this industry. Always check the current text before relying on any of them.

  • IATF 16949: automotive quality management, including change control
  • VDA 4902: transport label for the German automotive supply chain
  • Odette OTL and the Global Transport Label (GTL)
  • AIAG shipping, parts identification and 2D symbol specifications
  • ISO/IEC 15459: unique identification of transport units and items
  • ISO/IEC 16022: Data Matrix symbology for direct part marking
  • REACH and RoHS: substance declarations accompanying goods

The outputs

What has to agree.

Produced by separate systems these drift apart. Produced from one record they cannot.

  • Part and component identification label
  • OEM-specific transport and master label
  • Traceability and genealogy record
  • Substance and compliance declaration

Questions about this industry.

Can one template really serve several OEM formats?

The formats differ too much for one layout, but they draw on the same shipment and part data. The practical approach is one controlled product and shipment record, with per-customer label definitions resolved at print time, so adding an OEM is configuration rather than a new parallel process.

Does this integrate with our MES?

Product, order and shipment data flows in from ERP, MES or PLM through documented interfaces rather than being re-entered. Labeling is not the system of record; it consumes the record and produces controlled output.

Other industries

Your process, your rules.

Experience web-based production printing workflows tailored entirely to your line mechanics.

Request a demo

Cookie preferences