“I think the fact that we don’t have an automated phone system, and anyone that calls is getting a human on the other side is a big reason our customers keep coming back to us,” says Product Manager Juan Munoz. “We pride ourselves on our fast response to not only sales inquiries, but to quality issues as well—we respond as fast as we can.” 
As the Product Manager, much of Juan’s day to day involves managing the product we currently offer, as well as working with in-house experts and outside manufacturers to introduce new products.
During his 14+ years at EIM, he has been fascinated by the construction of labels. In regards to the assumption that labels are just printed paper with a sticky back, Juan says, “You can think of assembling the components of a label like you would ordering a sandwich from a deli. You’ve got four components to a label; liner, adhesive, face sheet, and you don’t see it, but there is a top coat as well. The liner carries the label—if not for the liner, it would be tape,” he explains. “The adhesive is sandwiched between the liner and the face sheet. The top coat is what makes the material receptive to ink.”
A Jet Sized Challenge
Another facet of Juan’s work is acting as the lead facilitator for our Innovation Team, a cross-department think-tank of Label Experts that gets together whenever a customer has an unheard of labeling challenge.
One of his favorite challenges to date is when the Innovation Team was tasked with finding a fast solution for an aviation company with a high priority problem—they needed an adhesive-free barcode label that could fit multiple sizes of jet engine bores—but they only wanted to use ONE label product.
It took 30 days total filled with sampling back and forth, offering alternative solutions, making changes in design, and implementing printers before he and the team settled on a finished product to send out for testing. Their one size fits all perforated tag label eliminated concern for FOD’s (foreign object damage) being sucked into the jet engines.
After a successful testing period, the aviation company took the solution worldwide for all of their jet engine bores. (Go here for a deeper behind the scenes look at the Innovation Team’s solution.) 
Go Fish!
In his personal life, Juan enjoys camping, boating and fishing with family and friends. He’s been fishing since he was a kid and continues to pursue the sport regularly—even going ice fishing on Lake Winnipesaukee during bitter New Hampshire winters.
Juan cheers on the Dolphins during football season, and also keeps up with college basketball—he was particularly thrilled this year to watch his favorite basketball team, the Tar Heels, win the National Championship.
Asked about his favorite aspect of his job, Juan says, “My favorite part is identifying the pain-point with the customer and the customer is thrilled with the proposed solution. The customer’s happy, I’m happy, so hands down, that’s the best part of it.”
Connect with Juan on LinkedIn to find a solution for your unique labeling challenge!
