Article Label Printing at Scale
Overview
A trading company with its own in-house logistics operation needed a fast, reliable way to generate article labels directly from their ERP data. Manual label creation had become a bottleneck as order volumes grew, and the team was looking for a solution that would integrate cleanly with their existing infrastructure without adding complexity.
Together with kiwi software, they rolled out VeloxFactory as the rendering engine behind a lean scanning workflow that now produces over 4,000 labels per day, fully automated and delivered straight to the warehouse floor.
The Challenge
Warehouse staff had been looking up article data manually, copying it into label templates, and printing. As the business grew, this process couldn't keep up. What they needed was simple:
- Labels generated in under a second per scan
- Data pulled directly from the ERP, no manual input
- An interface that works with a standard barcode scanner, no keyboard required
- No additional middleware, no fat clients, no complex integrations
The Solution
kiwi software built a lightweight single-page scanning mask that ties directly into VeloxFactory's REST API. The whole frontend was finished in a single day. The workflow is straightforward:
- A warehouse employee scans an article barcode
- The scanning mask sends one API request to VeloxFactory, passing only the article number
- VeloxFactory fetches all relevant article data in real time from the connected MS SQL database
- The Jaspersoft report template is rendered with the live data and output as a print-ready PDF
- VeloxFactory dispatches the label to the company's print server, which routes it to the nearest floor printer
Scan in, label out. Typically within 800 ms end-to-end.
Technical Setup
| Component | Details |
|---|---|
| Frontend | Custom scanning mask (developed by kiwi software) |
| Report engine | VeloxFactory |
| Report template | Jaspersoft Studio (.jrxml), designed to label specs |
| Data source | MS SQL Server via VeloxFactory data adapter (sqlsrv driver) |
| API input | Article number only |
| Print delivery | VeloxFactory Print Task to on-premises print server |
| Daily volume | 4,000+ labels |
The data adapter resolves the article number into the full set of label attributes: description, unit, weight class, hazard indicators and storage zone. The report template then lays these out according to the company's label specification.
Results
Since going live, the process runs without any manual intervention:
- 4,000+ labels generated and printed per day, fully automated
- Label generation time down from several minutes to under one second
- Data entry errors eliminated completely
- Staff need no training beyond a single walkthrough of the scanning mask
- No local print drivers or client software required on scanning stations
Why VeloxFactory
The combination of a clean REST API, native data adapter support and built-in print server integration meant there was no need for a separate middleware layer or custom rendering pipeline. kiwi software connected the MS SQL database via the sqlsrv driver, configured the print server target and had the scanning frontend running in a day.
"We connected the database, set up the print target and had a working frontend the same day." -- kiwi software, project lead