How often do you wait until the last minute to buy a gift? Whether it’s for the holidays, a birthday or Valentine’s day, studies show that 30% - 50% of us wait until a day or two before the event to purchase a gift. While last minute shopping may work for gifts, using the same approach in business can quickly backfire. Stockouts of key items can cause costly disruptions, and for most organizations, labels are one of those essentials you can’t afford to run out of.
Consequences of Running Out of Labels
When you think of crucial operational items, it’s unlikely that labels are the first ones to cross your mind. Yet, running out of labels isn’t just a minor inconvenience, it can shut down production lines, stop ecommerce shipments and threaten patient safety. In environments where manufacturing efficiency and timely shipments are crucial to customer satisfaction and every specimen, prescription, or treatment must be accurately tracked, a missing label is more than an inconvenience, it’s a liability.
Lost Revenue and Productivity
Running out of labels directly affects the bottom line across industries. The estimated hours of downtime for large companies can easily run into seven figures. But, even for small businesses it’s an issue, with costs estimated between $137 to $427 per minute! Plus, shipping delays can have a significant impact on revenue. If you don’t ship a product, you can’t invoice and collect payment for it.
Compliance Risks
In regulated industries like chemicals, food, or pharmaceuticals, improper labeling can trigger audits, fines, or product recalls. Across all sectors, the inability to consistently label products undermines trust with customers, auditors, and partners.
Patient Safety Risks
In hospitals, labeling starts from the moment a patient is admitted and continues through discharge. The inability to label medications, differentiate look-alike, sound-alike drugs, mark specimens, and more, create significant patient safety risks.
Emergency Reorders and Extra Costs
Stockouts rarely happen at a convenient moment. To recover, businesses often resort to rush orders, incurring overnight shipping fees and paying premiums for small batches. These emergency fixes cost significantly more than planned purchases and add stress to an already busy environment.
Brand Risks
Label shortages can impact credibility and reputation. Delayed shipments impact immediate revenue and increase the churn from dissatisfied customers. This attrition can impact revenue for years to come in the form of canceled orders, lost sales, and reduced repeat purchases, damaging customer lifetime value.
The consequences of running out of labels reinforces the importance of maintaining a well-managed stock.
Why Stock Management Matters
For businesses where labels perform essential functions, effective stock management is the foundation for keeping their operations running smoothly. In healthcare, veterinary, shipping, warehousing, retail, and manufacturing environments, labels play a central role in safety, compliance, and efficiency. Managing the supply of key items helps prevent costly disruptions.
Inventory Tracking Prevents Emergencies
By proactively monitoring usage and setting reorder points, organizations can avoid critical shortages. For essential items like:
- Shipping labels for distribution or ecommerce operations
- Inventory labels for warehouses
- Asset labels for manufacturing
- Prescription labels for veterinarians
- Anesthesia labels for healthcare
- Price labels for retailers
Tracking usage patterns ensures the right labels are always available. Through a simple spreadsheet or an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, tracking both label type and volume ensures that the right labels are always on hand.
Assess Usage Patterns
Take time to review the types and volumes of labels your team relies on most. In healthcare, that may include anesthesia or medication labels; in logistics, it may be 4x6 shipping labels; and in retail, it may be barcode or price labels. Understanding usage patterns helps right-size stock levels and avoid both shortages and costly overstock.
Prioritize High-Use Labels
In many industries, a small group of labels drives most of the demand. For example, in hospitals, a handful of drugs account for the majority of anesthesia label use. In ecommerce, standard 4x6 direct thermal labels account for the bulk of outbound parcels. Focusing on these “high-use” categories ensures you’re prepared where it matters most.
Seasonal and Procedure-Specific Considerations
Demand isn’t static. In healthcare, procedure volumes often spike at year-end when high-deductible plans reset. In e-commerce, shipping peaks during the holiday season. In manufacturing, production surges may occur around new product launches. Anticipating seasonal trends and adjusting stock accordingly keeps operations uninterrupted during peak demand.
Safety Stock Levels
Unplanned events can cause unexpected usage patterns. Maintaining a safety stock level allows you to guard against a sudden spike in demand or supply chain snafu.
Use these steps to manage supply chain challenges effectively.
Regularly Review and Adjust
Inventory strategies should evolve with your business. Regularly reviewing usage data and adjusting stocking levels reduces waste, lowers costs, and ensures consistency across operations.
Consistency Supports Compliance and Safety
Maintaining a supply of key items reduces risk and ensures compliance. In healthcare and veterinary practices, this means accurate medication, specimen, and patient labeling. In shipping and warehousing, it ensures compliance with DOT, OSHA, or GHS standards for hazardous materials. Across industries, consistent labeling reduces the potential for compliance and safety missteps.
Ready to use stock labels are an effective way to minimize inventory management challenges.
Labels Are a Core Part of the Workflows
Labels may seem insignificant compared to other workflows, but they’re woven into every stage of business operations. A shortage can derail the entire operation, causing inefficiency, frustration, and lost revenue.
How UAL Helps You Stay Stocked and Ready
The hidden cost of running out of labels often isn’t clear until it causes real damage like shutting down shipments, stopping production or putting a patient at risk. United Ad Label helps you avoid those situations by turning best practices into reality with fast fulfillment, forecast-based ordering, and a wide selection of blank, custom, and specialty labels.
With UAL as your partner, you’ll always have the labels to keep your operation running smoothly. Contact us to learn more.