Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services. Every day, they help make the world cleaner, safer and healthier – protecting people and vital resources. Ecolab has over 95 years of experience in this field, operating from two manufacturing sites, one in the UK and a second operation in the US.

The Need

As a result of a 60% uplift in manufacturing demand stimulated by the global covid-19 pandemic, Ecolab was required to increase production capacity, transforming its typical manufacturing process from a 2-3 shift operation into a 24/7 operation in a very short space of time.

Ecolab demanded thermal transfer coding reliability and technical support service levels that could support and sustain their growing output, in order to prevent downtime during a critical period in their business.

After discovering a print quality challenge with one of their 12 year old ICE Zodiac coders, the site Engineering Manager called the Clearmark technical support team. Once the Clearmark support team had a full overview and knew what it would take to get the printer back up and running, they immediately responded in order to keep their critical operation moving.

The Solution

A Clearmark field service engineer was dispatched to the site in Wales the following day, providing a short term workaround, which initially enabled the production to continue without any major disruption to their critical operation.

The following day a courtesy visit was arranged, where an experienced Clearmark field service engineer implemented a long term solution and also provided operators with comprehensive training in order to maximise performance across all of their coding lines, preventing downtime and disruptions going forward.

Over the last two decades, Clearmark has been proud to grow its fully trained and experienced in-house team of engineers, technical support and aftercare in order to deliver quality solutions and award winning customer service when customers need it most.

“There are a lot of suppliers that talk the talk about good customer service, so when a supplier such as Clearmark actually deliver on that promise and goes above and beyond, we’re happy to back them.” – Jamie Hughes, Engineering Manager, Ecolab.

The Benefits

The strong support and additional training received instilled Ecolab with extra confidence in their ICE coding products and helped their team to maintain a 60% uplift in production, safeguarding against poor quality prints, disruption and helping to prevent costly downtime to their critical operation.

The overall service provided by the Clearmark team ensured Ecolab could continue to achieve the uptime they’d experienced for over a decade and continue to meet strict print quality requirements set by the pharmaceutical sector.

Ecolab were able to easily speak with a member of the Clearmark in-house technical team via a direct telephone number, didn’t have to put their trust in an unreliable contracted team with minimal product experience and were provided with a rapid solution within less than 24 hours.

“The Clearmark support team went out of their way to get us back up and running, we have been very impressed with the service level provided, something that is both refreshing and rarely seen.” – Jamie Hughes, Engineering Manager, Ecolab.

The Future

As a result of consistent service and the robust nature of the existing ICE Zodiac thermal transfer printers, Ecolab has recently purchased a next generation ICE Zodiac Hawk with integrated print checking for another line.