Building Product Labels

Product labels, known as Item Labels in DEACOM, are useful for labeling products with specific information. These are setup as Part Forms in DEACOM and can use various tags available to those forms to pull in item information such as product name, description, and various other Item Master information. Product labels are assigned as a general Item Label Part Form in Inventory Options. Item-specific labels can also be specified in the desired Part's Item Master Part Forms tab.

Some of the detail that should be included on product label are item number, item description, and pack/size (UOM). The item number should be barcoded to help with performing transactions such as cycle counts, physical inventory, and issuing and reserving material. Deacom does not recommend including quantity or Locations on labels as these factors can change frequently.

Configuration

  • The "Print outs menu" and "Printouts -- maintenance" security settings must be set to "Yes" for users who will build and modify part forms.
  • Users should also reference the "Configuration" section of the Managing Part Forms page prior to creating any part form.

Process

General process information on designing Part Forms can be found in the Managing Part Forms page.

Designing product labels

  1. Navigate to Print Outs > Maintenance > Part Forms.
  2. Click "New" to open the Edit Part Form and begin creating the label.
  3. Enter a name for the label then set the "Print Type" and "Print Destination" based on the Part(s) that will utilize this label.
  4. Set the "Default Type" to "Item Label".
  5. Select the proper "Print Method", which will define how the label is coded. ZPL will utilize the "ZPL Definition" field, while Designer will utilize the Report Designer. For process information on creating Zebra labels, refer to the Configuring ZPL Labels page.
  6. Click "Save" to create the Part Form record.
  7. On the Edit Part Form for the desired label, click "Edit Doc" to open the Report Designer. (If "Print Method" is set to "ZPL", refer to the Configuring ZPL Labels page for design information).
  8. Design the general layout of information on the label using the Toolbox.
  9. Typically, Item Labels will contain the following:
    1. Form title.
    2. Company information (company name, logo, address, and contact information).
    3. Item Master information (Part Number and Description, User Lot, System Lot, Master Lot, manufacture and expiration dates, etc.).
    4. Quality Control information (Quality Control Tests, test results, etc.). Regarding QC information, the QCINFO and QCINFO_PARENT table tags may be added. The QC information displayed will be based on the QC Tests/Groups contained on the default Bill Of Materials Revision for the selected item. Additional information on the QCINFO and QCINFO_PARENT table tags is contained in the "Part Form Table Tags" section of the Managing Part Forms page. QC User Fields are also available for printing on the Item Label.
    5. Other fields and information may be added to the Item Label as desired. To see what fields are available to add to this Part Form, print it to "Variable Display" using the steps listed in the "Printing labels" section of this page, which will generate a list of all available fields for reference.
  10. Once all sections have been designed, click "Save" to commit the changes, then close the Report Designer.
  11. Back on the Edit Part Form , click "Save" then close the form to complete the process.

Assigning default and item-specific labels

To set the system default Item Label, perform the following:

  1. Navigate to Inventory > Options > Printing tab > click "Add".
  2. On the Edit Label form, set "Label Type" to "Item Label".
  3. Use the "Part Form" field to select the desired product label.
  4. Use the "Label Print Qty" to dictate how the label will print. If "User Expression" is selected, enter an expression in the "User Expression" memo field.
  5. Indicate how many copies should print by default using the "Default Copies" field.
  6. Use the "Application" pick list to control which applications will use the label.
  7. Click "Save" and "Exit" on the Edit Label form to commit the changes and close the form.
  8. Back on the Inventory Options form, click "Save" and "Exit" once more to complete this process.

To assign item-specific labels, perform the following:

  1. Navigate to Inventory > Item Master > click "View". Users may also utilize the available filters to narrow down the list of items that will be displayed.
  2. Locate and select the desired Part and click "Modify" to open the Edit Item Master form.
  3. Navigate to the Part Forms tab and click "Add".
  4. Complete steps 3.2 - 3.7 for the selected Part.
  5. Back on the Edit Item Master form, click "Save" and "Exit" once more to complete this process.
  6. Repeat for other Parts as desired.

Printing labels

  1. To print an Item Label for a Part:
  2. Navigate to Inventory > Item Master > click "View". Users may also utilize the available filters to narrow down the list of items that will be displayed.
  3. Locate and select the desired Part and click "Print Item Labels".
  4. On the Print To form, confirm the print settings then click "Print".