System and method for printing labels on-demand

摘要

The present invention relates to a system and method for printing labels on-demand in a manufacturing environment. During initialization, an association is made between a part being manufactured and the work station in which the part is made. The association is stored in a computer application. When a user desires to print a label, the user simply presses a user input device which generates a print request. The print request is interrogated to determine which port originated the print request. An indicator is presented to the operator indicating that a valid print request was received by the data storage device. The computer application searches for information related to the port that originated the print request. The data storage device transmits information from the computer application for printing on an associated printer.