Improving traceability at Yakult

The headquarters of Yakult Europe is in the Netherlands and the factory at Almere produces Yakult, Yakult Light and Bifiene products for the European market. The company was founded in Japan by Doctor Minoru Shiroto over 70 years ago. He was convinced that a positive balance of beneficial bacteria in the gut was the basis of a long and healthy life and developed a milk-based drink as a convenient way of ingesting it. Today, Yakult’s probiotic products are available in 28 countries around the world.

Sander Hollegien is responsible for the entire packaging operation at Almere, managing the equipment projects which affect the company’s long-term efficiency and product quality.

‘Coding is very important for Yakult in order to guarantee the quality and consistency of its health products. As Yakult products are fresh and perishable, accurate date coding is crucial. We are also very committed to product traceability, which is now subject to mandatory regulation, and this is another area where an efficient coding process is essential’.

Print and apply labelling: product identification in the supply chain

Shipments of Yakult are identified using MARKEM ‘print and apply’ technology to label all cases and pallet-loads for their journey through the supply chain.

‘I became familiar with MARKEM through an acquaintance’, said Sander Hollegien. ‘He’d had good experiences with MARKEM and recommended that I contact them. We were expanding our operations and had to decide whether to continue with our existing supplier or make a change. We spoke to three or four potential suppliers and, as a result, decided to trial the MARKEM Cimjet labeller. This proved very successful and our decision was made.

‘Cimjet systems offer us some important advantages’, he continued. ‘Firstly, we can be sure of good quality printing and secondly, the durability of the print-heads have resulted in significant cost-savings. Then there’s productivity; the long rolls of labels means longer periods between replenishment.

‘The Cimjet systems have proved extremely flexible and we can easily transfer them from one line to another as the situation demands. They are robustly designed and easy to use, and our operators soon acquired the skills to run them efficiently. So, when it was time to upgrade our pallet labelling system, it was natural to choose MARKEM Cimpak.’

Sander Hollegien is quick to see the benefits of systems integration. ‘We would like to source all the coding data from a single prime database and, through networking, control the whole process from a secure central point. This project will simplify our operation and eliminate potential errors before they happen.’

Quality and service

‘We expect a supplier to deliver good quality; not just good machines, but good service too. After-sales support is extremely important and my experience with the MARKEM Helpdesk has been very good. Any machine has a technical issue once in a while and such issues have been resolved quickly and well. I get excellent co-operation, a big improvement on what we experienced before. The machines are much more reliable and we have greatly reduced our downtime.’