40,000 labels, 100 production sites, 20 languages: How one2edit™ supported Sto in automating its real-time label generation and strengthening its brand.

The starting point: Sto SE & Co. KGaA is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of products and systems for coatingbuildings. The company is the market leader for thermal insulation systems. Its core business also includes high-quality facade systems as well as plaster and paints for the outside and inside of buildings. Alongside this, it offers products for concrete restoration, floor coatings and acoustic façade systems.

When requirements for the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) were integrated into European Union law, Sto had to deal with significant change. All of its product labels had to be adapted to comply with the new CLP (Classification, Labelling and Packaging) regulations in the EU.

The task: To meet all regulatory requirements without making production processes slower or more expensive – and while maintaining or further improving brand consistency. 

The challenge: To develop a cost-effective and time-saving way of generating product labels, including regional versions with different content, sizes, formats and languages.

The solution: We developed a fully-automated label generation system for Sto that covers 900,000 possible color combinations for 30 export markets in 20 languages. It’s able to handle variations in data (e.g. order numbers) and can be used for different shapes and sizes of containers – while also meeting the requirements of the 1,355-page CLP guidelines.

The implementation: An SAP database contains the product data for the various languages, including safety information. The relevant data is transferred into one2edit™ as an XML file and the labels are created automatically – in a way that’s on-brand and in line with regulations.

We combined one2edit™ with the Adobe InDesign® server technology and a RESTful API (programming interface) to enable Sto to generate labels on demand within ongoing production processes. one2edit™ brings together these systems to produce the right printing template as a PDF – in a way that’s highly efficient, 100 % accurate and always on brand.