IREKS GmbH

Label printing 2.0 with TRANSCONNECT^®

TRANSCONNECT^® connects different systems of international locations with the company headquarter in Kulmbach.

INFO

At IREKS GmbH – a bakery ingredients manufacturer with locations in 23 countries worldwide – TRANSCONNECT^® connects various systems at international locations with the company headquarter in Kulmbach, including web services, file systems, http/REST services or databases.

Initial situation

One application scenario is label printing, for which TRANSCONNECT^® provides a central access point to the entire printer infrastructure via http/REST, thus creating an efficient abstraction layer. All systems using label printing simply call up the TRANSCONNECT^® endpoint with the desired layout, the friendly name of the printer and the process information.
TRANSCONNECT^® enables the central administration and maintenance of all printer physics such as drivers, network addresses etc. as well as the central storage of all layout files. TRANSCONNECT^® thus drastically reduces the effort required for the maintenance and care of the printer infrastructure as well as for the integration of new systems, dissolves interdepartmental dependencies in the creation and maintenance of layouts and favours the fulfilment of corporate design specifications.

Solution

By separating individual parameters (physics and business logic) within label creation, a global mapping created a central location for maintenance. By triggering TRANSCONNECT^® with incoming dynamic data (e.g. production time of a batch) at the previously established end point, a look-up in the static data (article master and printer mapping) leads to the corresponding forwarding of the necessary data packages to the executing software (driver) for printing. In short, the implementation of TRANSCONNECT^® has created a central architecture for label printing that enables the separation of layout, static and also dynamic content.

“We connect up to 30 new interfaces in large IT projects. Since the introduction of TRANSCONNECT^®, we not only save valuable time, but also keep a permanent overview of our interface landscape and are able to act quickly in case of changes.”

Dr. Burkhard Michalski, Head of Solution Management, IREKS GmbH

Advantages of the solution

Great added value for the specialist departments of IREKS GmbH: independent changes to a layout by the specialist departments in just 5 minutes – without a label programmer. No deployment process, no release process, specialist department in charge.
Integration of new systems or replacement of printers in less than half a man-day.
Guarantee of a completely generic interface for any number of layouts, printers and data.
Further potentials to be pursued in the future using TRANSCONNECT^®.

With TRANSCONNECT^®

… IREKS uses proven integration IT instead of investing in a costly and resource-binding in-house development.
… IREKS retains control over processes and data – even in a complex environment with a large number of interfaces.
… IREKS has the possibility to easily connect further systems in order to generate a continuous automation of processes.