Welcome to Leave Your Mark, the Coding and Marking podcast, sponsored by Domino with your host, John Ballard. Throughout this podcast series, we'll explore packaging and production, hot topics, challenges, and solutions. Get ready for expert interviews, real world case studies, and thought provoking discussions that drive efficiency, compliance, and profitability for manufacturers of food, beverages, personal care and life science products.
Let's make a lasting impression on the industry together. Today we're talking about an area of labeling that often gets overlooked until something goes wrong. Aftermarket supplies for manufacturers, the labels and ribbons that you use can have just as much impact on uptime and performance as the equipment itself.
In this episode, we're focusing on Domino's Safe Supply offering and why choosing the right supply partner is critical to getting consistent results faster service resolutions of long-term value from your labeling investment. To walk through this from multiple angles, we're joined by experts from consumable service and product management at Domino.
Welcome guys. Brad, can you introduce yourself and your role at Domino? Tell us, what part of the business you support. So, I'm Brad Roush. I'm the product marketing manager for the print and apply product line in North America. One of my main roles is to help, support our account managers and national account managers in specking out equipment, the print and apply equipment for certain applications, for our customers' needs.
How about you, Brian? What's your role there at Domino and what part of the business do you. Yeah, so I'm, uh, Brian Burrell. I'm a senior customer service engineer. And, uh, you know, kinda like what Brad said, as far as the, specking out on the front end, I do a lot of the backend work. Once the equipment's on site, I do, repairs installations and, make sure the customers support it throughout the process.
I enjoy working in this role. I get to see a lot of different, industries and, how it's made every single day. So, Ames, last but not least, tell us, who you are and, what your role is at Domino and what part of the business you support.
Yeah, it's great being here. I worked predominantly, with the print and pie labeling machines on the aftermarket, the labels and the ribbons. I've been a domino for a little over six years now. It's been a good ride. I work really closely with the sales team and our customers and prospects to help 'em understand the value of using the domino media.
It is important and, something that often goes overlooked. So I'm glad we're talking about it today. So, while we got you, Ames, let me ask you a, more personal question. Outside of work, is there a hobby or personal interest that you enjoy that might surprise people? I don't know if it surprises people, but, I do like to be outside more.
I'm golfing and camping and boating and then getting into snow skiing a little bit. I guess the surprise would be that some people still do snow ski instead of, some of the other board sports, very cool. I'm still a skier myself. I, I need two legs stand up. Exactly, exactly. Alright. I heard too that you're into, uh, dogs.
Is that true, like dog rescue or did I hear that wrong? No. Yeah, no. My wife and I are part of a, a rescue organization. We work with English Setter Rescue. That's the breed that we've grown fond of. We don't have such a big role anymore. We used to foster and do things like that, but I travel a bit for work and you're always bringing a new dog in the house.
It's a lot of work, but it's, very rewarding. Awesome. So Brad, same question to you. Is there anything outside of work that, you do that people might find interesting or have hobbies you enjoy? You know, my wife and I moved, this past year into a new house. It's got a hobby shop, with it.
And I've, been able to enjoy some simple woodworking, projects out there. And it's, it's quite peaceful, relaxing. And when I make a mistake, I can, always take that piece of wood and throw it into the burn, fire, burn pile and nobody ever else I made the mistake. So it's very cool.
Is there something like particular that you like to make? Are you in a, like cabinets or cutting boards or anything specific or just whatever you feel like. You know, the, the, the, the last project I did, it was, yard game. So it was, washers, I don't know if you're familiar with it or not, but, had fun making a couple of washer sets for, for Christmas gifts.
That was very cool. Nice. So, Brian, last but not least, how about you? Is there anything, that you're into or enjoy that might surprise us or that you, you wanna share? Yeah, I don't, I don't know if it's a big surprise, but I, really enjoy playing pool, a billiards player
a hustler by any means, but it's something I do enjoy, getting out on the weekends. And, I, I've been a pool league, down here in, the Tampa area and it's a lot of fun. It's, it's competitive and, you know, it keeps me something to, to focus on and, and get better at.
Well, I need some help. Next time I see you at Pack Expo, we might have to sneak away to a pool hall so you can gimme some lessons. Hey, a couple drinks in. It's a good, it's a good time. I get, I start loosening up and it's even better. So isn't that what a hustler always says I'm not a hustler. It's, it's like the, the truth when you're, when you're logging into a website is right.
You have to check the box. I'm not a robot, you know? Yeah. Robots would check that too. Exactly. Very cool. Well, we're here today to talk about Safe Supply, for listeners who may not be familiar with what Safe Supply is and, what it does or what does a customer actually get when they sign up for Safe Supply.
One of you guys wanna take that one. Yeah, so if you're not familiar with Safe Supply, in essence, it's a program that streamlines the ordering of media labels and ribbons and things like that make the print and apply machine run and operate, and we've merge it. With service agreements.
So we're gonna provide a discounted service agreement, or even in a lot of cases, a free service agreement. So from a hierarchical level, it's something that kind of brings both the media component of the machine and the maintenance component of the machine into one spot. Brad, maybe you could tell me why Domino Field was important to create a formal program around aftermarket supplies instead of treating it like a standard purchase.
When it comes to print and apply, there's three main aspects of it. There's the equipment, the consumables, and the service side. If you don't have all three elements you could liken it to a three-legged stool.
But, if you only have two of those elements, if you only have the equipment in the, in the consumables and no, no service agreement with it. Then the overall customer experience isn't gonna be what it could be. The Safe Supply program when tied to that service and it, it brings those two elements into that equipment and it really can improve that overall experience.
So let's assume I'm a domino cu or customer, you know, I have your equipment, but I'm not already buying labels and ribbon, from you what would motivate me to consider safe supply? Like is it price? Is it, you know, all the above? Like, you know, how do you, how do you justify the service or value there?
Often label inventory, ribbon inventory isn't considered as a part of the ordering process when you're on the production line. And I'm sure Brian can speak to that, how many times he walks into a plant and they say, we're outta labels, we're outta ribbons. So part of wanting to make that program was to bring everything together to domino so we can help manage it.
But that leads into why, if you're already buying labels and ribbons from someone else, would you consider us you are getting a free service contract. The pricing's right where it needs to be. And, most importantly, you are really bringing it back to, Hey, we at Domino are gonna take care of you and you really only need to make one phone call or send one email and it's gonna happen for you.
what role do extended warranties and discount replacement components play in the overall value? Another aims question, or is that a Brian question? I would be happy to take that one. so, just with any equipment that has moving parts, there's normal wear and tear, as it's used in a production environment.
so having those parts covered as they begin to wear and fail and the system starts to lose performance, having the service aspect of it gives additional eyes on that where, you know, someone that's, that's able to specialize in print and apply units, can see, when things are starting to wear down and the performance is starting to drift off, probably a little bit ahead of schedule then, then someone who's, who's not a specialist would, would notice that.
so that really adds that proactive touch where we can, have those parts included. and stay ahead of it and, make sure that the printers stay at top performance, day in and day out. you guys are in a lot of factories and see a lot of different, lines and how things are running from a service perspective.
What are the most common issues you see tied to like non domino supplies? Is there like certain things that seem to pop up if you're using a really cheap label what I see a lot of times, is there can be quite a bit of variance from one role to another.
and I've heard that many times on a service call that, all of our problems started when we put this label roll on and then we took this label roll off and put another one, and then it started working again. And, you know, and those label rules could be from the same, order, from their existing supplier.
what I've seen with customers that do have a safe supply intact is that, they don't see that variance from one roll to another, from one roll of ribbon to another, or labels. what can happen is ribbon or labels that aren't embedded very well. Could have a lot more paper dust.
And that paper dust can compromise, sensors and components, mechanisms in the printer that are, very key to the overall label roll. that helps it maintain feed and performance as it runs. it can cause sensors to fail and then you can see a lot of variants from, from one label roll to another.
I think Brad hit on this earlier, but assuming often that turns into, it's the equipment or the supplier, saying it's the equipment. And the equipment producers are saying it's the consumables. Is that common? You hear that in the field quite often, 
Yeah. it definitely at times for sure, and it's not a super frequent, occurrence, but, it does. and so that's where, it helps to have that trained eye sometimes you go from a service engineer and turn around and become a teacher and you're showing customers, okay, see this sensor and see this dust.
You know, this is what's happening here. I use slow motion videos a lot of times to help, slow down the entire, movement so we can catch, what's happening. And, that generally helps a lot. we're not just trying to point fingers. We're trying to understand what the issue is so we can address it and find a solution.
if a customer were to consolidate supplies and service with Domino, would you see that typically helping improve issue resolution, line stoppage and that type of thing? Yeah, on the service side. very much so. because in addition to having that extra set of eyes on the components and the mechanisms of the printer, we also go around and, check inventory.
So if they, their label stock, the ribbon stock, and we can ensure that, they're staying ahead of the game on their orders. so now you have, additional people making sure that they have what they need to run, they have the label stock they need, and to make sure that they're staying on top of their orders.
and then also staying on top of the performance of the equipment. how are Domino specific print and apply systems designed with specific label and ribbon characteristics in mind? Is that true? Are they designed that way? there's A one-to-one match with the, ribbon to label ratio, meaning that the label roll is designed to be as long as the ribbon roll so that when you run out of labels, you run outta ribbon at the same time.
So you have one time where you're having that line stoppage, versus, A varying, line stoppage. You don't want to run out of labels. And then, let's say an hour later run outta ribbon and have two line stoppages. So that helps you with your overall uptime, from a production standpoint.
I never thought about that aspect of the two running out at different times if they're from different suppliers. Absolutely. When you buy the equipment and the consumables from us, we're able to match that up to make sure that those two links are the same.
the other item I can think of in that aspect is the ribbon consumables that we provide, it comes with the takeup core attached to the leader, and while it might sound like a minor item, it actually reduces the time it takes to change out that ribbon 
if you're focused on that, consumable price, you might save a few pennies on not having that core attached to that leader, but now you're taking additional time to change out that, that ribbon and causing, additional downtime and loss production. Brian, let me ask you this. have you seen customers using safe supply, get better long-term equipment performance and total cost of ownership, versus, outsourcing or buying from different suppliers?
Yeah, in my experience, I have, and, and it's why I, I think that that does come into play is, is, is, is quite a few different factors. aside from the label, quality itself, being able to, stay on top of those, Components as they start to wear out, gives that proactive touch.
So where they're not constantly trying to, make repairs, you know, and, and in a production environment, every, every second, every moment's key. And, what can happen a lot of times is when you're not being proactive and things break down, you can get a lot of different hands on the equipment that, may not.
Know the best way to, to correct, you know, the issue and what that can cause is, is additional downtime and, and, and bandaid fixes where, yeah, they, they may be able to get it running, but at the same time, there could be other components that are now compromised because it's not, Set up correctly anymore.
so I guess to answer your question, when that's in place and, you're able to, see everything, on a routine basis, we find that they have the same wear points, from one application to another. So if, you know, for example, if we have one client that, they, they have a specific roller because of their labels that they.
Generally wear down. We wanna make sure they have that roller stocked on their shelf, so they're not waiting for, shipment times or, any other delays to get those fixed. they're only waiting on the logistics of getting us scheduled, as a service tech to come on site and replace that, specific part that might wear down, you know, in their application, faster.
So, you know. As that translates into months and years, you start to see routines and the fixes become quicker. the maintenance becomes quicker, and the longevity is, exponentially increased. I would add, John, that, from a total cost of ownership, safe supply gives you predictability.
And that's what Brian was talking about by, using consistent good material in the machines and having a great team like Brian's they're gonna see things. Before they happen, work on things before they happen, and have a better response time 
you're gonna have uptime and your total cost of ownership's gonna be very predictable, and that's super important in today's environment. Yeah. So with this program being so great, why do you think, customers still hesitate to adopt safe supply? even when the benefits are really clear.
it's tricky, every opportunity and every sale is a little bit different when it comes to equipment. sometimes we're working with the operators and the maintenance team and they really don't know who to speak to within their own company about the program or how to get something like that started.
another example would be maybe, we're working with an implementation team or a project management team. While they think it's the greatest thing in the world, they're completely detached from how label procurement takes place. So we, we really try and, and work with those guys and, and help them trace, back through their operation on who needs to get their eyes on a program like this.
Is there, like, you guys probably hear a lot of misconceptions around why you should or shouldn't buy directly, you know, from the OEM ribbons. Is there. Some, you know, myths you wanna refute there or, what do you guys hear from people buying around this? I mean, from my perspective, Amazon isn't always the solution, but, yeah, I think one of it is price.
You know, people are very price sensitive and when you hear OEM, you know, they equate it with taking your car to the, the dealer to get an oil change or something like that. You're just, you're just paying for something you don't need and it's too expensive. But, it's. Clearly not the case. we often match the price or even are better than their existing pricing.
So it's, sometimes a price thing. Brad, if you could give, a word of advice to a plant manager or procurement team evaluating a label solution today, what would that be?
I would say, one of the biggest misconceptions is price. do your homework, compare us, let us provide you a quote, realize that with Those ribbons and labels, you are getting that free service program or discounted, higher service program. it can, certainly help the plant managers team with their budget in terms of a service contract, reduces all of that.
So I think we're through most of the questions, Is there anything else you want to cover that we didn't talk about in regards to this program I think I'd like to add, when you were asking about, what advice I would give to a plant manager or the procurement team mm-hmm.
It does speak back to look at the total cost of ownership. look at service, look at supplies, and understand that these are mechanical solutions. lasers are great. they just run and go, but a mechanical solution requires, service and eyes being on the machine.
So we're covering that, but I think. Something that's often overlooked is we're locking in media prices, we're allocating inventory for you. So, you know, we're doing a lot of things behind the scenes that also affect the cost of the solution. So there, there's a lot of components to safe supply that, many people may not be looking at closely enough.
To Tam's point, the amount of times that I've heard Customers complaining about not being able to get labels from their existing supplier and and yet have been resistive to, to. To buy those same labels from us. And once we did convince them to start buying from us, and, and we stock those labels and are able to provide them on a timely basis, those complaints go away at that customer site.
So it's, an all around good program. Awesome. We did a previous podcast last week on the service team and how you guys are able to do, troubleshooting from, afar So that combined with this is a pretty awesome program. We completely agree. There's a lot of tools, augmented reality.
I'm sure Brian could speak to that. some of the things that really help them troubleshoot that could even prepare him before he arrives on site. Yeah. We went pretty deep into some of that service, and how you guys respond and how quickly and how you were able to troubleshoot last week.
The key takeaway is that labeling performance is not just about the machine, it's about the entire system working together. Safe Supply from Domino is designed to simplify ownership, eliminate finger pointing, and help manufacturers get consistent results from their print and apply labeling operations.
If you're experiencing reoccurring labeling issues or evaluating a new labeling system, it might be worth looking beyond upfront equipment costs and considering how aftermarket supplies and service support fit into the bigger picture. Thanks to our guests for sharing their experience, and thanks always to you guys for listening.
Hope to see you again soon. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Leave Your Mark, the Coding and Marking podcast, sponsored by Domino. We hope you enjoyed our insightful discussion and gained valuable knowledge to enhance your operation. for more information on revolutionizing your coding and marking solutions, visit codingandmarkingpodcasts.com.