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Foodservice firm makes its case

Mark-Lynn Foods employs 29 case coders at its Bremen, GA, facility. The networked machines improve reliability and lessen labor costs.

As taped shipping cases are conveyed through an opening in a wall, a coder prints the side of the box.
As taped shipping cases are conveyed through an opening in a wall, a coder prints the side of the box.

Shipping more than a half million cases per month demands reliable case coding at Mark-Lynn Foods, Bremen, GA. That reliability has been a reality since the manufacturer and packager of foodservice and institutional items began using Markem’s 5000-Series high-resolution ink-jet coders.

Currently the company employs 29 coders, 16 on wet lines used to package ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, salad dressings, dipping sauces, jellies, jams, and syrups. Those coders were installed in 2000. The remainder of the ink-jet units were up and running last year on 13 dry lines used for packaging products such as sugar, sugar substitutes, powdered coffee creamers, and various drink mixes. Most wet goods sell under Mark-Lynn brand names, whereas about 60% of all dry goods are sold under “house” names and 40% as private-label offerings.

Before investing in the Markem coders, Mark-Lynn hand-applied a pressure-sensitive label to cases while also equipping three lines with large-character ink-jet coders.

“The former coders were messy, and their print quality was granular and not at all what we wanted it to be. The Markem coders provide a high-resolution code that looks smooth and is easy to read,” says Kerry White, Mark-Lynn’s director of information technology.

As for the hand-labeling, White says, “A three-inch by four-inch label cost us anywhere from one-and-one-half to three cents each.” He estimates that the ink used to mark each box now costs .004¢ to .005¢ per case.

Labor costs are trickier to calculate. Each packaging line produces about 19ꯠ cases per month. Each label took four to six seconds to print automatically, then be manually applied. White says annual labor savings come to around $31ꯠ.

The 16 wet lines run one shift per day, five days per week and the 13 dry lines run three shifts, five days per week. Cases contain anywhere from 6 to 6ꯠ packs, depending on the product. Products are filled into a variety of configurations including small, flexible condiment packets, canisters, bag-in-box, #10 cans, and 2-lb flexible bags.

Rigorous search

White says that Mark-Lynn management wanted to move away from manual labeling and automate the process, as it began doing with equipment on many of its packaging lines.

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