Sector: Information and Communications Technology

When Japanese labelling giant SATO came across an off-the-shelf and affordable traceability solution, it realised the New Zealand innovation was just what it had been looking for.

Headquartered in Japan, SATO began expanding into the Oceania region at the start of 2006 and quickly identified a perfect fit between Label & Track software from Auckland company Walker Datavision and its own product range.

The key attraction for SATO, says Paul Ryan, Managing Director of Walker Datavision, was the ability to use Label & Track to drive revenue to its labelling business.

SATO beat off other prospective purchasers in a competitive market tender and provided the capital injection needed to complete the Label & Track solution. SATO also provided an ideal distribution channel for Label & Track through its operations in 24 countries around the globe, making the solution considerably cheaper and quicker to launch internationally.

Label & Track is an automated manufacturing and logistics traceability solution that can track and trace across the entire supply chain. It can be driven by the scanning of barcodes or RFID (radio frequency identification). Its advantages are ease of use on the shop floor, scalability to suit businesses of any size and affordability, and a high degree of functionality that can drill down to fine detail.

Ryan says the concept can best be explained through the life cycle of a can of beans. “Label & Track is a solution that enables you to know everything about that can, from its ingredients to when, where and what time it was made, which production line it came off and what box it went into.

“It also tells you what pallet carried the box, when the pallet was dispatched, what train it went on, when it arrived, how long it sat at the warehouse and every detail about the life of the product until it reaches the customer.”

SATO has kept the development of Label & Track in Auckland recognising, says Ryan, the value in keeping the product close to the ‘Kiwi ingenuity and freshness’ that led to the original innovation.

SATO New Zealand has 100 staff, mostly in Auckland, and is poised for significant expansion as Label & Track is rolled out to 24 countries over the next 18 months.