Role
Packaging and labelling
Which labelling requirement changed most often in the last two years? If you do not know, you also do not know how many versions of a label are circulating across your markets today.
Intro call
Four questions we would start with
Which requirement changed most often?
That one shows how much work keeping up costs you - and how fast a change reaches the printer.
What do you do when a market requirement and a marketing guideline conflict?
If it is settled by whoever answers the email faster, the risk of a batch recall is real.
How do you know the right version of the label went to market?
If it is from the assumption that the printer got the latest file, you know less than you think.
How many times a year do you correct a label after it has been printed?
That number usually explains what the lack of one place for versions costs.
We take over tracking requirements and versions, you keep the content and the approval
Collecting requirements, preparing variants, keeping versions and distribution to the printer can be taken off the desk. The content of a label and its approval stay with a person.
- Requirements are assigned to a market and a product. - Not in emails from a year ago, but in a register, with the date they apply from.
- There is one version in force. - The printer takes the file from one place, not from an attachment to a message nobody can find any more.
- A change in the law has its reach identified. - Which products, markets and label versions it affects is visible straight away, not after going through the whole portfolio.
Scope
What can be taken off packaging and labelling
Nineteen example tasks. Each one has a human approval point. Below is a selection, and the scope we fit to your portfolio and markets.
Market requirements
- A register of requirements by market and product category
- Linking a requirement to specific labels
- A signal when a requirement comes into force
- Pointing out the products a requirement change affects
Designing a label
- The mandatory data for the market, set out
- Checking the mandatory elements are complete
- Comparing the design with the market's requirements (assessment: the specialist)
- Language variants from one data source, with the completeness of translations checked
Legal approvals
- The design routed to legal together with the market requirements
- The list of changes against the previously approved version
- A register of legal comments with how each was settled (approval: legal)
- Recording the legal basis for contested elements of a label
Printing and packaging stock
- One source of the production file for the printer
- A signal when a printer has not taken the current version before an order
- The stock of packaging in the old version against the change date
- A plan for using up the stock during the transition period (decision: the specialist)
Changes in the regulations
- Tracking changes to the requirements in the markets you serve
- A summary of labels needing correction (decision: the specialist)
- A plan for introducing the change against the packaging stock
A day's work
Today
- The market requirements sit in emails and in conference notes
- At a change in the law you go through the portfolio yourself
- Comments on a design come back in several email threads
- The printer works from a file in an attachment
- You do not know which version went on the last batch
- You discover the stock of old packaging at a change of requirement
With AI assistance
- The requirements are in a register, assigned to market and product
- A change in the law points out the labels it affects straight away
- The comments are in one place, with the author and the date
- The printer takes the file from one source, with a version number
- The version used for a batch is recorded
- The packaging stock enters the plan for the change
- Compliance with market requirements
fewer batches not compliant with a local rule
the requirements are assigned to a market and checked
- Introducing a change
the change reaches print with its reach identified
it is known which items and markets it affects
- The risk of a batch recall
less chance of printing from a version no longer in force
the printer takes the file from one source
- Versions in circulation
fewer parallel files of the same label
there is one version in force and it is marked
We start with the register of requirements, because everything else follows from it.
- Step 1
Requirements by market and product
Collecting what today sits in emails and in people's heads into one register with the dates they apply from.
- Step 2
One source of versions for print
The production file with a version number, taken by the printer from one place.
- Step 3
The approval flow
Comments and approvals in one place, with reminders.
- Step 4
Tracking changes in the regulations
Signals about changes and the labels affected. Last, because it needs the register from step 1.
Common questions
Questions that come up at the first meeting
What about old packaging stock when a requirement changes?
That is usually the hardest part, and that is why the stock enters the change plan as data rather than as a problem discovered in the last week. The decision whether to use the stock up through the transition period stays yours - but it is taken with the number in front of you.
Will this role become unnecessary?
The content of a label is a legal responsibility, and the decision about it stays with a person and with legal. We take over tracking versions, the flow of comments and distribution to the printer - the organisational work around that decision. A specialist who is not doing it by hand serves more markets with the same people, and that is usually the real problem.
Does this fall under the AI Act?
Handling labels is not a high-risk use. Checking against the requirements is a pointer for verification rather than a legal opinion - the final approval stays with a person and that should be made clear in the process.
Still have a question that is not here? Book a call
Next step
How many versions of the same label are circulating across your markets today?
We will show you what handling labels looks like when the requirements are assigned to a market and the printer takes one version in force.