Barcode Inventory system

[JoshYoung]

Hey guys, I am working on pricing a barcode inventory system for our company. We have two shops that support our field guys. My shop is tools, and fleet maintenance. The other shop houses our HVAC fabrication and parts inventory. My boss gave me the opportunity to pick out our inventory management software. I met with one company and it offered very close to what I was hoping to find.

Originally the one of the guys in the other shop was going to be finding his own software as well for his building. It just happened that the first one I looked at had functionality for tool inventory (my job) and parts inventory (his Job). We have the budget to add this software to our operation, but I want to make sure I am getting my boss a good price regardless.

Initial setup of this program is $5,500 for the first year and $4,800 per year after that. Does this price sound reasonable or am I getting high numbers?

Thanks in advanced!

 

[2Rocky]

I use barcodes for price labels in a retail setting. Basically barcodes are just an alphanumeric font read by a laser. My biggest issue with is is reading the barcodes after the labels have been applied, and they wrinkle or tear or become obscured by dirt and grime.

$10,000 plus start up cost would have me investigating RFID tags. You could even put in a walk through scanner where employees check in and check out tools by walking through to the tool room. This has become a standard in livestock identification in the Dairy and beef industry

RFID Asset Tracking Software

Wasp RFID asset tracking solution automates asset tracking, moves, check-outs, check-ins and disposals. Wasp is one of the most efficient and cost-effective tracking technologies available today.

www.waspbarcode.com

 

[rlitman]

I use barcodes for price labels in a retail setting. Basically barcodes are just an alphanumeric font read by a laser. My biggest issue with is is reading the barcodes after the labels have been applied, and they wrinkle or tear or become obscured by dirt and grime...

UPC codes ****. Plenty of 2D bar code systems have redundancy built in and can handle up to 60% loss. DataMatrix codes FTW. The only down-side to 2D codes is you can't recycle cheap and crappy 1980's laser scanners.

 

[dscheidt]

I use barcodes for price labels in a retail setting. Basically barcodes are just an alphanumeric font read by a laser. My biggest issue with is is reading the barcodes after the labels have been applied, and they wrinkle or tear or become obscured by dirt and grime.

$10,000 plus start up cost would have me investigating RFID tags. You could even put in a walk through scanner where employees check in and check out tools by walking through to the tool room. This has become a standard in livestock identification in the Dairy and beef industry

There are two very different problems you have to solve when tracking mobile inventories. One is identifying your inventory (this drill has a tag that says "drill 1234", whether that's a paint marker, a sticker, barcode, rfid tag, or all of the above.). The other is managing the inventory (where is X, where was it last week, where will it be next week, etc, how many things of type Y do we own, how much do they cost, ...). They are completely orthogonal to each other, and the software you pick to do inventory management should not care how your inventory is tagged, because it doesn't matter if it's a barcode, an rfid tag, or just the operator knows everything. And the tagging solution shouldn't care that it's feeding the tag data to. (there are, or have been people selling an integrated solution that only works with their stuff. they all ****. At best they do one part right, but you're stuck with **** for the rest.)

(Disclaimer: I spent a long time writing this sort of software. I have opinions. I know as much about the problem space as anyone, and vastly more than most.)

 

[P0234]

Is the software on prem or cloud? By the price, it sounds like whatever it is, you are renting it as usual software costs are X price the first year you buy it then 10-20% maintenance (covers upgrades and support). Without naming the software and what they are selling, its tough to say if its going to be worth it. And it sound like you've only shopped one company, you have to do the same research with at least 2 or 3 more int he same space. Last but not least, make sure you call tech support for any of them and pretend you are a new customer trying to set things up. How that call goes should be at least 33% of the weight in your decision. Also lock in pricing for 5 or 10 years if you can, lots of these companies give a good starting price then screw you over since you are essentially trapped.

 

[dscheidt]

UPC codes ****. Plenty of 2D bar code systems have redundancy built in and can handle up to 60% loss. DataMatrix codes FTW. The only down-side to 2D codes is you can't recycle cheap and crappy 1980's laser scanners.

One advantage of modern barcode scanners is that they're reasonably smart, and are basically a camera with some image processing software to find a bar code. even pretty cheap ones can be configured to prefer a particular kind of barcode (better ones add support for contents, too). that's nice when your inventory tag is next to the manufacture's serial number tag, and the QR code link for an instruction manual. Scanner knows you're using datamatrix, so it only scans the one. Even in the absence of conflicting bar codes, they're way faster and more accurate than the laser scanners were.

 

[mikester]

My last position at my job was doing a bi annual inventory of over 50K pieces of equipment on a 5K acre site. Hundreds of buildings, shops, offices. It would usually take 8-10 months to complete. Finding the misplaced pieces sucked. Two guys with handheld scanners. Im glad I retired. LOL