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Shiseido shines at short-run flexibility

Shiseido's tabletop labelers provide short-run solutions for applying language-specific labels on bottles and jars of cosmetics for export.

A tamping arm places the p-s label (left). Shiseido?s labeler came with digital controls (above
A tamping arm places the p-s label (left). Shiseido?s labeler came with digital controls (above

Although Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido is the second-largest cosmetics producer in the world, its year-old, state-of-the-art Cranbury, NJ, packaging facility benefits from a decidedly compact packaging solution. The cosmetics firm is using foot-operated Quadrel (Mentor, OH) TL-2 tabletop labelers supplied by distributor Slate Packaging (Cinnaminson, NJ). They're used for short-run labeling of glass jars and bottles of creams, lotions, perfumes and other cosmetics. The labels, applied to the bottoms of glass jars and bottles, contain a batch code and language-specific copy. That's because most of the facility's production is destined for export.

The No. 1 benefit of the labeler is flexibility for short runs. "If we need to label a couple hundred jars of a certain product, it doesn't pay to set up one of our larger labelers," explains Bob Siefert, maintenance manager. Short runs crop up for a number of reasons, such as for test products or rework.

The labelers are also used as temporary substitutes for new equipment on order. "We were waiting, for instance, on a new labeler to come in for cream jars," Siefert says. "We used two of those tabletops for production runs in the interim, and they worked very well."

Another benefit: "Since they're on stands with casters, we can move them to different production rooms as necessary," Siefert says. "They're very versatile." (While they can be used on a tabletop, Shiseido ordered its units with stands.)

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