Brother UK has launched a new labelling self-assessment tool designed to help warehouse and logistics customers identify opportunities to streamline processes and boost efficiency.
The tool features 11 questions and takes just five minutes to complete. Once submitted, businesses instantly receive a comprehensive report outlining their strengths, areas for improvement and practical advice on enhancing labelling processes.
Customers will fall into one of four categories based on their responses: Labelling Expert, Almost Optimised, Exploring Efficiency or Just Getting Started. These categories help determine the most relevant next steps for improving labelling workflows and prioritising process optimisation in the warehouse.
For customers that fall into the ‘Just Getting Started’ category, or are unsure of where to begin, Brother recommends conducting a labelling process audit. This helps map out current workflows, access equipment setup, identify pain points and highlight clear areas for improvement.
Those in the ‘Almost Optimised’ and ‘Exploring Efficiency’ categories may already have a solid foundation but still face challenges such as hardware downtime or mislabelling errors. In these cases, Brother recommends evaluating the current equipment setup to ensure its fit for purpose. This includes assessing whether there are enough print stations, mobile printing solutions or the right hardware to meet warehouse demands. Integrating solutions like on-body mobile printers, forklift-mounted devices or mobile workstations enables at-location label printing, reducing disruption and minimising error.
For businesses already operating at a high level of optimisation, Brother suggests levelling up by prioritising data monitoring, staying up to date with the latest industry developments, improving responses to warehouse downtime and drawing on expert advice to identify best-in-class labelling solutions tailored to specific needs.
To support this, Brother offers a range of advanced labelling technologies designed to enhance operational efficiency.
“Labelling inconsistencies can cause serious issues for warehouse and logistics operations, from delivery mix-ups to lost time correcting errors,” said Simon Brennan, senior business manager (SPS) at Brother UK. “Research shows businesses lose up to £6,000 and 347 working hours per operator each year due to inefficient labelling, with every disruption costing up to 23 minutes in lost focus.”
Brennan continued, “Our new self-assessment tool helps businesses think about where they might be losing valuable time and money, and what steps they can take to improve. At Brother we live for the label and our experts are ready to support customers in finding labelling solutions that boost both efficiency and reliability.”
