SMI unveils materials education and specification program

As part of this program the company has developed an easy-to-use tool for measuring the critical diameters of glass and plastic containers, allowing the correct adhesive for a particular circumference to be specified. There will be seven modules in all covering the full range of end use applications.

‘We are following the advice of Mike Fairley that the label converter has to become a solutions provider,’ says SMI managing director Ajay Mehta. ‘This means he has to find out what label to use. They can then give their expertise to the end customer. If printers are cagey about the final use of their labels and look only to buy on price, they will fail and we will fail.’

An on-line component to SMI’s new educational/specification system walks the printer through 7-10 questions to focus on the specific application. ‘Only then does the appropriate spec sheet and order form pop up in your inbox,’ says Rohit Mehta.

Continues Ajay: ‘We have had so many cases where somebody has been using a product and suddenly it doesn’t work. But unless I know the application how can I help you choose the right product for the application? Everyone has to rise up and we have to stop this fighting over price. At the moment it is the supplier who tells customer how to do costing and that cannot continue.’

Ajay’s concern with efficiency and a proper value chain extends to the purchase of new equipment.

‘When you buy a new machine the additional capacity is a by-product. You buy a new machine to move to a new level of efficiency, so why keep hold of the old press? How can a team work with both of them? The old machine is seen as paid for, so kind of free, so the printer takes the lower price jobs and puts them on that machine which brings the whole industry down.'