Misconceptions

of Packaging
Quality Control
 Reuben Malz
2 years ago

photocopier. You press print to

make 100 copies, and out
comes 100 perfect, identical
copies. The expectation is no
different when printing
500,000 Aspirin labels, cookie
cartons, or potato chip bags,
but is this true? Are
commercial printers like
photocopiers?
Let’s turn our attention away
from the printer and look at the
question of liability.
components are shipped to the
production plant and
everything is packaged, filled,
and distributed to all the
warehouses across the country?

“How did the text copy I wrote change in the printer’s proof?”

A few days later, the brand company calls the printer very upset that the barcode is missing on all the cartons!
settles with the printer without
paying for the printing, that
represents only about 5% of the
total distributed cost of the
product sitting on the store
shelf. The loss is huge.
contents, the production cost,
the cost of distribution, the cost
of collecting and destroying the
defective product, and
eventually the cost to rerun the
production again.
printer or the brand company
or the production company
would have checked the
printing, everyone could have
saved a lot of money, time, and
environmental impact.
involved so we can blame
someone and recoup the losses.
Whose fault is it? Who is in the
wrong?
The print job that the brand
company thought was as easy
as printing on a photocopier
has become a huge liability.
but you’re still at risk for the
loss to your supply chain and
customers. What if the
consumer gets injured or dies
because of the printing error?
It won’t be the printer who is
liable.
no need to QC the print job,
remember who carries all the
Here is a list of the
risk.
most common print
errors:
The right label on the wrong
1 package
2 The barcode is missing/wrong
3 The colors are wrong
4 One of the ink colors is faded
5 An older version is printed
6 The position of print is off
7 Blurry text
8 Spelling mistakes
9 Missing logo
 10 Smears, ink splatter, smudges
11 Cut-off section
12 Folded wrong
against errors like these by
helping to verify shipments
from the printer. The above
cautionary tale is an example of
what can go wrong when both
parties fail to do their due
diligence.
removed from photocopiers.
Truth be told, it’s much more
complicated than that, and, yet,
expectations of pristine
packaging on the part of the
end user remain a very real
thing.
get the job done, but also
increase the risk of conversion
errors, while manual
proofreading can only catch so
many mistakes before fatigue
and human error sets in.
Digital proofreading software is
one logical solution that
maximizes cost-effectiveness as
it pertains to quality control,
resulting in a less-strained
relationship between printers,
brand companies, and of
course their customers