Posts from the Barcode Scanning Category
How Barcodes Work!
Posted by Dana Ritchie on June 21st, 2011
I have been in the bar code labeling business for over 23 years. I came across this video on how UPC bar codes work. I knew some of this, but the finer details were new to me. I really enjoyed the detailed explanation. You too can become a bar code expert after viewing this short video.
Radio Frequency Data Collection Up And Running
Posted by Dana Ritchie on March 4th, 2009
I have a customer who is on a very good growth curve for the foreseeable future. The problem they are faced with is that the inventory and order picking is all done by manually on clip boards. After these tasks are done, the hard copy paperwork is then sent to the office to be typed into the computer. Another problem they had is that there was a significant delay between the time they collected the data to when they could invoice their customers, it took days. They wanted something faster. With the company growing so fast, they were concerned that they would have to add people to keep up with the increase in business. They asked PaladinID to come in and see what solutions we had to offer. Once we took a look at what they were doing, we could see that using the latest in mobile handheld computers, they would not only save time in their current processes, but virtually eliminate all errors from not having to key in the data but best of all it would be real time. The customer was thrilled and could not wait to get started once we gave them the proposal. They have been using this new system for well over a year now. The system exceeded their expectations and they believe they could grow over 200% and not add any people in the warehouse. They can now invoice the same hour once the picking is done and all key punch errors are gone. They have given us a great recommendation for our knowledge and follow through.
Price Look-Up Application on Short Notice
Posted by Dana Ritchie on August 18th, 2008
Recently, PaladinID was contacted by a retail client with a serious and time sensitive business problem. They are opening their first stores in MA and have discovered that our busy elected officials on Beacon Hill have thrown them an unanticipated curve ball. It is a law in this Commonwealth that all items in a store be individually price labeled. For those items where that is not practical, the store must provide one price look-up scanner (you have seen these at WalMart) for every 5000 feet of floor space. Basically, the scanner reads the bar code on the item and performs a search of the store’s point-of-sale data base and then displays the price. In this instance, the scanner is connected to the store’s server via an Ethernet connection.
Unfortunately, our client was made aware of this requirement about three weeks before the first store was scheduled to open. They were steered to PaladinID by our good friends at Honeywell Imaging and Mobility. Honeywell offers a product specifically designed for this application called the Image Kiosk 8560. The 8560 is a Windows based terminal with an integrated bar code scanner the uses Adaptus Imaging Technology for reading 1D and 2D bar codes.
PaladinID then reached out to our partner PSS Products for the software link between the 8560 and the client’s POS application Island Pacific’s OnePointe. PSS Products has a wealth of experience in dealing with Island Pacific software but also in implementing price look-up applications for other retail clients.
With the timely help of our distributor partner Scansource, PaladinID was able to supply the 8560 to PSS Products who were able to load and test the software and deliver the finished product to our client in about a week! If you are in the retail space and have a similar problem give us a call – because that’s what PaladinID does - solve problems!
On-Line Bar Code Verification Revisited
Posted by Dana Ritchie on July 28th, 2008
In an earlier post we talked about an application in which our client needed to verify the print quality of bar codes as they were being printed. We recommended an after market bolt-on scanning device that could trigger a divert from the manufacturing line if a sub-standard bar code was detected.
Well, we have another client with a similar business problem – ensuring that the bar codes they print on their products are scannable by their end user customers. However, this application differs in that the labels are printed in a peel and present mode and then manually applied to the product. So, the after market Printronix device was not an appropriate solution.
We consulted with Bruce McDowell at Datamax who recommended the H class thermal transfer printer with an on-board linear scanning device option. This high performance 300 DPI printer employs a CCD scanner to monitor bar code scannability as it is being printed. The user can set a series of thresholds including bar code type, number of bar codes present or minimum number of good reads that must be met by the scanned bar code label. If the bar code does not pass, the user also has a number of remedies to choose including re-printing the label or simply stopping the printer.
While this solution does not provide true ANSI bar code verification it is about half the price of those devices and does provide simple bar code validation which is more than adequate in this and many other applications. We will piloting this device with our client in a few weeks – so, more on this solution later.
ETG Systems
Posted by Dana Ritchie on May 12th, 2008
Last week we spoke with Jamie Thomas at ETG Systems in Dallas TX. ETG is a software company that offers a number of specialty products. We are initiating a relationship to resell their WEBorder application. The product is a replacement or upgrade path for those companies using devices with acoustic couplers to remotely enter orders. For example, there are many wholesalers that have their sales force use handheld Telxon 610′s or 710′s to enter orders from the field over a telephone connection. In particular, we have talked with both hardware and food wholesalers who continue to use this older architecture because there are are not a lot of alternatives. WEBorder allows these companies to upgrade to much faster and more reliable FTP and internet order transfers while still maintaining support for the legacy acoustic handheld units. If this technology gap exists at your organization, please give us a call and we will show you the benefits of the WEBorder system.
It is one more way that PaladinID helps to solve your bar code scanning and data collection problems.
Glacier Computer
Posted by Dana Ritchie on May 8th, 2008
On Friday May 2, Dana and I met with Rodney Mitchell at Glacier Computer in Amherst NH. Rodney is an old friend and in a previous life was the sales manager at Advanced Data Capture. He is now the Channel Manager at Glacier and we met with him and Mark Mistretta, the CFO, to discuss their products and to explore a reseller partnership. Glacier is a manufacturer of rugged terminals and PC’s for applications in the warehouse, manufacturing, construction and field service markets. They are tightly focused on industrial computing applications and have a reputation for building durable, flexible, open platform devices. They are also making an aggressive push into the reseller channel and Rodney has been brought on board to spearhead that initiative.
PaladinID is excited about the upside of this new partnership. Glacier Computer offers us a natural extension to our current product offering for our customers in the wireless data collection environment. And it is always advantageous to work with a local manufacturer and in this case with an old friend. We will have more information on these new products in the near future.
MassPlastics Show
Posted by Dana Ritchie on March 31st, 2008
PaladinID exhibited at the MassPlastics show at the Royal Trade Plaza in Fitchburg MA on March 26 & 27. The show is aimed at the large number of plastic manufacturers and plastic component suppliers located in the central part of the state. Although not as numerous as they once were, the Leominster/Fitchburg corridor is home to a high concentration of businesses in this industry. The show was reasonably well attended with a steady flow of foot traffic on both days. Many of the exhibitors who were located near the PaladinID booth told us that they has been attending this show for many years and that from there many were headed to a similar show in Baltimore.
We were ably assisted by three of our reseller partners. Neal Berenson of Datalogic served booth duty with us on Wednesday and took us to dinner at a great place called the Monument Grill located, of all places, in Leominster. Thanks Neal! Ed Riley of Honeywell Imaging helped with demo gear and his affable presence on Thursday. Thanks Ed! And Jay Lauer from Opticon pitched in with some marketing funds.. Thanks Jay!
And lastly, thanks to Mike Moscato at our distribution partner Bluestar for making available a Datamax M class printer for display.
RJS/ Printronix high speed on-line verification on the manufacturing floor
Posted by Dana Ritchie on February 21st, 2008
One of our manufacturing customers approached us with a business problem to solve. (That’s what we do!) The product that our customer makes is targeted to retail markets and requires highly readable UPC bar codes or they get the product returned from their clients. Or worse, they are assessed an escalating fee for each instance of non-scanning. Because of the volume of products they manufacture and the speed of the production line, it is not practical to manually inspect or verify each item to make sure the bar code label is readable. In addition to an automated verification process, they also wanted a system that could store a record of each bar code that was successfully scanned on the production line. PaladinID contacted Jack Tedesco at RJS/Printronix, an industry veteran and expert in high speed bar code verification technology. Jack recommended the Scanvision SV200-1 scanner for high speed conveyor applications. In addition to providing our customer with the high speed verification and record keeping that they required, the Scanvision software actually gives them a real-time graphic display of the verification occurring on the production line. While addressing this customer’s business problem, we found that there are not a lot of folks out there who really understand this bar code scanning application, so if you have this requirement, we would be glad to help.
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