BarTender® software case study
EnglishManufacturer sees throughput increase 70%
with new labeling system

Undertaking a new digital automation
strategy in a manufacturing process
involves a number of different variables.
A new strategy requires support frommanagement, buy-in from operational
teams, cooperation from individual
members and other elements. It must
eventually integrate well with existing
systems, be within budget and show
growth results over time.
That was precisely the situation for
OmegaFlex, a Pennsylvania-based
manufacturer of flexible metal hoses,
braid products and highly engineered
assemblies. For 45 years, OmegaFlex
has manufactured flexible stainlesssteel gas-piping hose systems for use incommercial, industrial and residentialapplications.
OmegaFlex had been following thesame business processes for nearly 25
years when opportunities arose for thecompany to achieve new efficiencies.
BarTender played a part in helping thecompany realize this goal.

The challenge
OmegaFlex produces lengthy (up to 8,000
feet long) f lexible metal hoses for gas pipes.
These long pipes are then cut into smaller
lengths and manually inspected for surface
defects in the extrusion or markings, thenpressure-tested.
The company’s final testing department
uses pressure-decay equipment to test eachfinished reel before placing it into inventory.
An operator visually identifies the size ofeach product being tested and uses a chart
to select the proper test program for that
reel. The program measures pressure changeover time against the specific volume of air
used in the reel to determine whether thereel has a leak.
For many years, OmegaFlex had conducted
this process by having an operator manuallypressure-test the reel. The operator would
walk to a central workstation and print
multiple product labels — up to 30 at a time
— for the reels they planned to test. Oncea reel passed its pressure test, the operator
would affix a label to it and place it into
inventory.

This was a laborious process that was
costing OmegaFlex time and money. The
primary problem was that testing all of these
individual pipe lengths was a disconnected
process: OmegaFlex’s central printing
station was 30 feet away from each hosetesting workstation, which meant workers
had to walk back and forth wheneverthey needed to test and manually label
each product. It also sometimes resulted
in inaccurate or lost labeling, operator
distraction, wasted time and other issues.
The key pain points faced by OmegaFlex:
1.

The company’s existing labelingsystem was cumbersome, with only
one workstation for multiple operators.
Operators would often have to wait inline to create the labels they needed.

2.

If operators created labels prior to
testing products, any unused labels
had to be deleted from the tracking
database.

3.

Operators had to monitor their own
work, which took up valuable operator
time and exposed testing parametersand EOM inventories to human error.

4.

The Microsoft Access-based tracking database had limited
storage capabilities. By year’s end, the database had to be saved toa separate storage format (CD) and cleared out to start anew.

5.

The process was paper-based, requiring each operator to record
the label numbers they used and printed.

The existing manual processwas error-prone, introducing risk at
every step. OmegaFlex needed to modernize its labeling process. It
needed greater control and operational efficiency with its labelingsystem, and it needed to reduce the amount of risk and error inits process overall. To achieve these goals, OmegaFlex mechanicalengineer Justin Moore (Senior Project Engineer, Flexible PipeDivision) assessed that the company would need to move to adifferent label printing model — a change that would require thedigital transformation of its entire testing operation.

The solution
OmegaFlex reached out to systems integrator IPSi (IntegratedProductivity Systems) for guidance. The IPSi team, led by President
Rick Schilling along with developer Ian Faust, reviewed the company’sissues and recommended a distributed label-printing solution thatwould capture digitization principles using Intelligent Templates™.
The system IPSi recommended and eventually built for OmegaFlex
brought greater efficiency to their labeling, with streamlined
production process and a 20–50 percent increase in testing speed.

The change to an automated, distributed labeling process createdmany positive results for OmegaFlex. Since IPSi installed the system
in 2021, OmegaFlex has seen its throughput rates jump by up to 70%.
The operators have increased their pressure tests from 20 per hour
to more than 30 per hour. Plus, the new system has significantly
reduced the potential for human error and saved two hours weekly forsupervisors in their checks on operator work.
The automated labeling solution has also given OmegaFlex greater
control over its data. Records are no longer manually manipulable— only a supervisor or database administrator from Engineering or
IT can make any modifications or corrections — which has led toimproved data accuracy and accountability.
“Our new BarTender distributed label printing system has been agreat morale and productivity booster,” said Brian Szczech. “Our team
now has more control throughout the entire process, and with fewer
hours required for follow-up, our supervisors’ time is free to manageother things. We’ve increased our label printing throughput by asmuch as 70%. And we’re excited about the ways our capacity is goingto grow in the coming years.”
Now that each workstation is independent and self-contained, endof-month inventory no longer shows variations in finished goods,and operator paperwork has decreased. Today, the OmegaFlex teamcontinues to enjoy the benefits of the BarTender labeling system,
including its automation opportunities.
“It’s fulfilling to be able to facilitate major process improvementfor our customers through labeling — my favorite subject,” said
Rick Schilling. “We helped OmegaFlex achieve better profitability,increased efficiency and improved accuracy. We’re proud to have beenpart of this collaborative digital transformation.”“Once we looked at their system, we knew that we could solve a lot of
the problems that OmegaFlex was experiencing,” Rick Schilling said.
“We used BarTender’s Integration Platform to connect a well-planned
database with BarTender’s Intelligent Templates™, and OmegaFlex
immediately had a more agile labeling system that’s going to be scalable
as the company grows and folds in other processes.”

Conclusion

The new automated labeling system integrated the following
components:

The BarTender and Zebra distributed label printing solution increased
OmegaFlex’s labeling efficiency. BarTender enabled: 
B arTender software R eduction of label maintenance with Intelligent Templates™

 A SQL database 
Simplification of complex printing with configurable data-entryforms H ardware that included 12 Zebra (ZD420i) printers placed at 12
different workstations A Red Lion Human-Machine Interface (HMI) — in this case,using G10C1000 Graphite series HMI panels with free Crimson
programming software — to drive crucial labeling processes I ncreased productivity via powerful design tools

PART #DATE“Once we realized that our old way wasn’t working anymore, andwe needed a new way to print labels, it was an easy decision to workwith IPSi and BarTender,” said Justin Moore. It’s made a tremendous
difference in our capacity.”

UNIT OF MEASURE

06/01/2021
REEL #QUANTITY

FOOT5101054

25
TESTED BY680

THROUGH-PENETRATION PRODUCTS
FOR USE IN THROUGH-PENETRATION FIRESTOP SYSTEMSSEE UL DIRECTORY OF PRODUCTS CERTIFIED FOR CANADAAND UL FIRE RESISTANCE DIRECTORY <28SL>

ER-0227

Refer to the latest Design Installation Instructions
That can be obtained from your local distributor oronline at www.tracpipe.com/technical

Americas:
Sales@SeagullScientific.com+1 425 641 1408

www.SeagullScientific.com

EMEA:
EMEASales@SeagullScientific.com+34 91 198 4600

APAC:
AsiaSales@SeagullScientific.com+886 70 1018 4700

Japan:
JapanSales@SeagullScientific.com+81 3 4567 0091

© 2022 Seagull Scientific, Inc. BarTender, Intelligent Templates, Drivers by Seagull, the BarTender logo, and the Drivers by Seagull logo are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Seagull Scientific, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
P RT 0075_EN_0322

TRACPIPE PROFESSIONALS ONLY

FGP-CS-500-25

Results

CAUTION: TO BE INSTALLED BY TRAINEDIPSi created a sophisticated communication line between the MES
and PLC using the BarTender integration platform as the brain, alongwith a TCP/IP web trigger event. This combination was ultimately
what provided OmegaFlex with the ability to print the right output tothe workstations’ distributed printers.

 
Enhanced data accuracy through connection to files and databases