94 | Self-adhesive materialsManaging a self-adhesive materials inventoryThis excerpt from the Label Academy book, “Self-Adhesive Labels” examines all the aspects of managing a self-adhesive roll inventory.etting up an automated stock management system has Self-adhesive labelbecome particularly critical as label printers are increasingly Sasked by brand owners to provide traceability of all self-adhesive materials for every batch. Meanwhile, ineffcient stock management is now recognized as one of the leading causes Adhesiveof waste and incorrect estimating.Specifcation and ordering Face materialLinerEach of the three individual components of a self-adhesive laminate – face material, release liner and adhesive – have their own characteristics, and suppliers offer the converter many combinations of these three elements in their product catalogs. The very frst dialogue between the printer, the brand owner and the applicator is often about the conditions in which the product will be labeled and the usage of the label. This will defne the Composition of self-adhesive roll (courtesy UPM Rafatac)selection criteria. “Ineffcient stock management is now recognized as one of the leading causes of waste and incorrect estimating”The substrate identifcation codes for self-adhesive materials are independent of the ordered length and size. Using a 180mm-wide roll on a very narrow press or a 330mm wide roll on a wider press does not require a change in the substrate’s identifcation code. Of course, the width and length must be provided upon ordering. By using a price per sqm, self-adhesive material suppliers allow printers to use one purchase price for one substrate, independent Label applicator machine (courtesy Packsys)of the width. This leads to the frst two levels of a self-adhesive material catalog: substrate (a specifc combination of the three components, independent of width) and material (a specifc width of a substrate). At the substrate level, only sqm is relevant; for the material level, the width and length are added. But this does not mean that ordering is easy. Price tables are related to the quantity ordered and supplementary restrictions can limit the options for ordering. Sometimes a minimum quantity needs to be ordered and, in some cases, it is necessary to order a predefned length, like 2,000m, or width, say 1,000mm. The purchaser must indicate how this width, far too large for production, will need to be slit by the supplier (for example 1,000mm = 3 x 330 mm + 10 mm) and they will need to pay for the complete sqm ordered, even though the supplier can be asked to destroy the left-over width. This means that in the order process, the user should be able to combine individual material orders into a cut-instruction for the supplier, all for the one substrate-ID. Almost every self-adhesive material supplier now offers electronic ordering systems, but the more complex the set of limitations, the larger the number of system rejections. Scanning suppliers roll barcodeThe benefts of electronic ordering are great for both sides. The labelsandlabeling.com