No matter the operation’s size, every business strives for better profitability and customer retention. To do so, companies often track several key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor and forecast business growth. While there are many viable KPIs to track, small and growing businesses are often encouraged to monitor the following indicators:

1. Order accuracy rates address how often orders are shipped with the correct products to the correct customer within the correct allotted time.
2. Inventory turnover rates can record the fluctuating demands for any particular product while assessing your ability to move goods down the supply chain.
3. Gross profit margins provide a clear picture of final profits after operational expenses such as labor, shipping, and the like are paid off.
4. Cash flow forecast assists small businesses in predicting the costs of high demand, so they can make adjustments accordingly before profits are hindered.
5. Funnel drop-off rates allow you to see how many potential customers abandon purchases to optimize business tactics.
6. Market share clearly depicts how your business compares to competitors by measuring company sales with total industry purchases.

To track multiple KPIs in real-time without costly errors, Barcodes, Inc. recommends simplified and scalable digitization

Track it all with Barcodes, Inc. Digitization Solutions – built with Zebra’s Scanners

Unlike paper-based systems, digitized warehouse management curbs the likelihood of manual data entry errors, misplaced files, missed sales, late deliveries, and bottlenecks. Zebra’s enterprise-ready scanners successfully transfer all your crucial data into the digital system of your choice, all for…

• Faster order throughout
• Increased order accuracy rates
• Sharable data with minimized workflow disruptions
• Easy configuration for faster deployment
• Faster onboarding thanks to their intuitive user-friendly build

At Barcodes, Inc., digitization doesn’t have to be complicated. Take a closer look into how we make optimized inventory management seamless, simple, and scalable with Zebra’s rugged scanners. Contact us for a free assessment.

With so many mobile devices choices out there for business users. How do you know which one
will meet your needs and your users?

Read the infographic below and see what’s the best way to choose the one you need in your
workforce and how Barcodes, Inc. and Zebra can help you find the solution that works best with your
company.

Mobile Computing 101

With major airlines using Impinj Monza tag chips to help track luggage, it’s exciting to see this technology grow. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) voted to approve a mandate requiring member airlines to implement RFID baggage tracking. The implementation is set with the goal of rolling out the technology globally by 2020. According to IATA, member airlines represent 83% of the global air traffic, with the tracking solution in place consumers can track the movement of their luggage from their phone.

Airlines and airports are no stranger to RAIN RFID, London Heathrow and Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport already use the tracking solution from finding a trolley to sorting and tracking luggage. These types of baggage tracking solutions, among others, have helped the industry drop their lost luggage rate by 70% over the last decade.

Monza tag chips features:

• High performance to achieve excellent read and write sensitivity
• Interference Rejection to yield outstanding reads
• Omnidirectional Performance in every direction

This is great example of how technology impacts our everyday lives, whether its down on the ground or 40,000 feet above!

Talk to our dedicated account managers to see how we can help you with tracking solutions in your business today!

Whether we notice it or not, barcodes are being used all around us in more applications than ever today. From tracking products throughout their life cycle to advertising and even video games, there is a wide range of barcodes fit for any way you can think of using them.

This handy infographic shines some light on the 2 main categories of barcodes, 1D vs. 2D codes, and what their benefits and uses are. It’s a great primer to see how you can use barcodes in ways outside of the retail check-out lane.

You’ll find that no matter what data you are trying to track or encode, Barcodes, Inc. can help you find the right printer, labels, scanners, and mobile devices to get the most out of any barcode.

When explaining data tracking, the first question our customers ask is “Aren’t asset tracking and inventory tracking the same thing?” The short answer is no.

Assets are “permanent” objects that belong to a company. They are items a business uses internally, such as computers, tools or educational material. An asset is always tracked as a unique item. For example, even though you may give 10 of the exact same PC, you are managing each PC as an individual item with its own unique barcode label. You want to ensure that you have accurate information on each specific asset’s location, condition, purchase date, value, custodian and most recent maintenance.

Inventory tracking refers to objects that are sold, distributed or otherwise consumed by a company. These “temporary” objects include retail items and office supplies. For example, you may have 100 boxes of staples in inventory and when you use one box the tracked quantity decreases by one. You are not concerned with what specific box was used, but rather that 1 of 100 was removed. Ultimately, you want to know how many you have in stock and when to order more.

To begin, compare your objects with the chart below to determine if you need inventory or asset tracking:

For more assistance finding the right data collection solution for your needs, contact us at Barcodes, Inc.

Overview
Egil Rasmussen is one of the largest carpentry and fine woodwork companies in its industry, with an annual turnover of approximately 25 million euros. The company is headquartered in Taulov, near Fredericia, Denmark, with a large department in Århus.

One of Egil Rasmussen’s main activities is helping rental companies and insurance companies with repairs. Examples include new apartment doors needed after a break in, or a new floors needed due to water damage.

The Challenge
Each year, Egil Rasmussen receives hundreds of jobs from rental companies and thousands from the insurance companies. The jobs usually require three craftsmen, who report the number of working hours, the materials used and transportation costs for each task performed.

This procedure used to be done the traditional way. The craftsmen would fill out a form with all information and pass it onto the accounting department, which would check the information and enter it into the financial software system called Artesa.

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Application Description

Horticultural tracking requirements place special demands on labels and tags. Long days in the hot sun, sudden downpours, wild temperature changes, and soil and fertilizer exposure can quickly compost typical label and tag products. However, the efficiency gained by accurately tracking plants through growth, care, and distribution does not have to degrade with the changing seasons. Intermec has the products and experience to enable reliable identification of these items from initial growth through final purchase.

Intermec Solution

For trees, shrubs, and vines, Intermec offers nursery tags in a variety of sizes, colors, and configurations. These self-locking tags shrug off outdoor conditions, allowing identification of these growing items from initial growth to final retail.

For pots, stakes, planters and other outdoor items, Intermec offers outdoor-durable labels and ribbons. Adhesives and label stocks that endure outdoor exposure for a year or more survive for the entire growing season; highly aggressive adhesives offer strong bonds on difficult-to-label items or tamper-evidence for retail labeling.

With Intermec thermal printers, these durable labels and tags can be custom-imaged onsite to meet immediate needs in the quantities required, eliminating long lead times and costly obsolescence. Colorful pre-printing can add logos, full-tint color, or provide simple solutions for large production quantities that do not need variable print.

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Radio frequency identification (RFID) devices have widely been used for tracking for years; recently, scientists from U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed a unique tracking technology that monitors the environmental and physical conditions of containers of nuclear materials in storage and transportation.

“RFID technology is ideally suited for management of nuclear materials during both storage and transportation,” said Yung Liu, Ph.D., Argonne senior nuclear engineer and RFID project manager. “Key information about the nuclear materials is acquired in real-time,” he explained in a March 24 press release.

Data on the status and history of each individual container are available with a click of the mouse and can be used to augment and modernize DOE’s existing management systems for nuclear materials.

“The Argonne system can simultaneously monitor thousands of drums 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Any abnormal situation, such a loss of seal, a sudden shock, a rise in temperature or humidity, can trigger an alarm for immediate action,” Liu explained.

The monitoring of tens of thousands of radioactive and fissile material packages has been a challenge for DOE to ensure accountability, safety, security, and worker and public health.

The system is comprised of active transponders, or tags with long-life batteries ( greater than 10 years), on each package, readers that collect information from the tags, control computer, and application software. The information is constantly updated and communicated via a secured network, thus decreasing the need for manned surveillance.

This RFID technology also has applications outside the nuclear field and may be used for other hazardous materials or any valued material, according to Liu.

“This new Argonne RFID technology, expected to be patented, has applications in many industries, and as the technology is further developed, its usefulness is bound to grow,” Liu said.