Small to very small batch sizes, with several thousands of items in a wide variety of packaging - and a constantly changing product range at the same time: More than most, kohlpharma attaches great importance to being able to apply labels with great flexibility. And since the items are pharmaceuticals and medicinal products, extreme precision is also required. This is the reason why kohlpharma operates well over 100 HERMA label applicators and labeling machines. The company, based in Merzig in Saarland, Germany, has just ordered a further 22 type 452C S top labeling machines. kohlpharma is the market leader in Germany and is still a rapidly growing parallel importer of pharmaceuticals. The company exploits the different prices of multinational pharmaceutical companies for one and the same medicine in the respective EU countries. Imports of proprietary pharmaceuticals from well-known manufacturers are on average around 10 percent cheaper, thus reducing the burden on patients and health insurance companies. Pharmacies in Germany are obliged to dispense low-priced imported pharmaceuticals, thus ensuring savings. But the business sometimes deals with small quantities. Incoming goods at kohlpharma total around 200 pallets per week. However, the individual medicines often only come in batch sizes of a few hundred items, sometimes spread over several batches. Batch sizes of 1 are also possible for expensive pharmaceuticals. As the original packaging usually has to be retained for trademark purposes, at least one - German - label has to be applied to the packaging, and in some cases five or more labels for the primary and secondary packaging. kohlpharma applies a total of around 200,000 labels per day, produced just in time in its own print shop with laser die-cutting. "However, due to the small batch sizes, the label applicators have to be set up incredibly quickly and all employees have to guarantee the same quality of results every time," says Wolfgang Barth, Group Manager of Production Technology at kohlpharma. "The HERMA label applicators are ideally suited for this due to their design and operating concept." And they are also suitably robust: Some HERMA applicators have been in use at kohlpharma for almost 25 years.
"We attach great importance to many small details"
In addition to flexibility, precision plays a prominent role. This is because some proprietary manufacturers insist that certain lettering or brand logos may not be reprinted. "Our labels then contain appropriate cut-outs that have to fit with millimeter accuracy," states Wolfgang Barth, outlining the challenge. "There are probably very few companies apart from kohlpharma that have such comprehensive expertise in efficiently designing labeling processes despite the enormous variety of packaging and small batch sizes." The modular design of the HERMA 500 applicators and their resulting variability are major advantages. However, in cooperation with the HERMA specialists, some of the applicators are given special "tuning" based entirely on kohlpharma's specific experience acquired over many years. After all, relabeling is a core competence here. "We attach great importance to many small details, and the list of these details is getting longer and longer. But HERMA can take this into account in the best possible way," states Wolfgang Barth. For example, the application roller in the outfeed does not simply run as an idler roller - which is customary practice - but often as a powered roller. "It even runs a little faster than the conveyor belt," explains Wolfgang Barth. "That is quite unusual. However, for our production conditions with often very light packs, this results in higher labeling quality and greater precision."
Accurate alignment is crucial
The ultimate precision is also required when a new wrap-around label is applied to small bottles, for example for drops, using a HERMA type 152E-S labeling machine. "We can't remove the existing label. So the new label has to be applied precisely to completely cover the existing one - and the viewing window must of course remain free. If the original logo is also to remain visible in a cut-out on the label, this further increases the requirement for precision and accurate alignment of the bottle," says Wolfgang Barth. kohlpharma broke the billion Euros turnover mark last year. But competition is fierce, even in this sector. Wolfgang Barth and his team are therefore constantly trying to make even the smallest processes even more efficient. "My aim is to increasingly work with format parts in the future," he says. "Of course, this is difficult because of the small order sizes and the rapidly changing product range. But I am confident that we will also find solutions for this together with HERMA."
