Dutch Blood Bank Deploys New Generation of Industrial-Grade Zebra Technology for Reliable, High-Volume Printing

Challenge

Sanquin was using a selection of Zebra S4M,140XiIIIPlus and ZM400 industrial printers, printing in resolutions ranging from 200 to 600 dots per inch (dpi), at its blood bank, manufacturing, research and diagnostic locations. These printers had been working effectively for many years, printing the 1.56 million labels Sanquin uses annually. However, they were slowly coming to end of life and Sanquin wanted to update its printers to the latest technology and standardise its solution. Sanquin had been working with Zebra partner Geostick for over 15 years, and Geostick has a deep understanding of Sanquin’s business, as well as a very strong relationship with Zebra, especially within the healthcare sector. Therefore, following a comprehensive testing and demo phase to confirm both the suitability of the hardware and compatibility of the printers with the existing software environment, Sanquin was happy to follow Geostick’s recommendation of deploying Zebra ZT610 industrial printers with Print DNA software suite for a high-performance, high-volume flexible printing solution that could be remotely managed. 

Solution

Sanquin is now finalising the phased deployment of the ZT610 printers at its seven locations for blood bag and blood bag box label printing. Sanquin and Geostick have had regular technical meetings to ensure the success of the installation, and Geostick provided several training sessions on the new features and functionality of the ZT610 printers. All printers now print at a standard resolution of 203 dpi, as the testing process demonstrated this was an adequate resolution for the labels. And the ZT610 printers come with a flexible peel and rewind option, which will be utilised at the Nijmegen site that operates on a slightly different basis than other Sanquin sites. Zebra’s cloud-accessible operating system software platform and Printer Profile Manager Enterprise (PPME), which will be deployed on completion of the installation, give Sanquin and Geostick intelligent, user-friendly features that enable total remote visibility and central management of the ZT610s.. The printers’ status and condition can be reviewed at any time and early preventive action taken to reduce downtime and on-site visits. 

Results

Sanquin has deployed a robust and reliable solution for high-volume label printing. It is now minimising its printer management time and cost, through the ability to centrally manage, secure and update all its Zebra printers from a cloud-based intuitive interface. In this way, it can maximise printer uptime. And having a single printer model is simpler both in terms of remote support and for the end user, as it is easy for them to move between printing applications. For additional assurance, Geostick will provide continued support and service engineer visits during the whole printer life cycle, as part of its strict service level agreement (SLA) with Sanquin. In short, the ZT610 printers are delivering exceptional performance and meeting all Sanquin’s requirements with regard to flexibility, speed and ease of printing, and it expects to sustain these results long into the future.

“We use Zebra ZT610 label printers to label our blood and blood plasma bags. We provide a lifesaving service, and therefore it’s essential our printers are always operational, available and easy to operate. We’ve had 100% uptime since deploying these Zebra printers, which proves their exceptional quality.”  - Lex van Doorn, Service Delivery Manager, Sanquin