Barcoding and Zebra Technologies Help Fleet Farm Migrate and Modernize for a More Efficient Future with Android
How Standardization Maximized an Investment in Modernization
Background: Fleet Farm is a large Midwestern retailer that sells a variety of inventory. In 2018, Fleet Farm became a Barcoding customer with a mobile refresh to replace aging equipment, implementing new technology at 42 stores and a distribution center.
Challenges: Fleet Farm has grown rapidly, adding four to five stores each year. In order to maintain and exceed the level of quality and service, Fleet Farm needed to overhaul its inventory management device solution.
Solution: The Zebra Technologies devices offered an all-in-one answer to the previously unconsolidated device solution that Fleet Farm had been using.
Results: In creating a unified development platform, Fleet Farm consolidated its teams’ expertise around Android for more efficient growth. This created a more seamless application experience for both Fleet Farm employees and customers.
“Barcoding has been a great partner in helping us decide on and standardize our use of the Android platform. It’s allowed my development team to focus their skills on development for a single platform rather than splitting their energy.”
― Chris Zimmerman, IT Manager, Fleet Farm
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World’s Largest Equipment Rental Company Goes Digital in Fleet Operations
Partners with Barcoding, Inc., and Samsung for a custom mobile solution to transform delivery processes.
Background: United Rentals, the largest equipment rental company in the world, relies on a complex fleet management system.
Challenges: Delivery operations for United relied on manual, paper processes. Since the processes were largely manual, the resulting time delays and other inefficiencies impacted productivity.
Solution: The Barcoding team offered advice and research to better inform the proper hardware and software implementation choices. The team chose to refresh from expensive, enterprise mobile handhelds to Android applications on Samsung S Series devices.
Results: Barcoding’s solution enabled the United Rentals team to become more efficient by increasing data accuracy, cutting down the time spent on administrative tasks, like invoicing, and improving delivery times. As a result, customer satisfaction also rose.
“The Barcoding team came in and took a very complex series of tasks, implementation events all with varying dependencies, and they were able to find solutions and help us see a clear path and guide us through it.”
― J.R. Taalman, Director of Central Operations Strategy, United Rentals
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United Rentals Improves Routing and Vehicle Utilization
Background: United Rentals is the largest equipment rental company in the world with an integrated network of 896 rental locations in 49 states and 10 Canadian provinces.
Challenge: Replace and deploy hundreds of outdated handheld devices used for route optimization.
Solution: Barcoding, Inc.’s Deployment Project Management Services, Samsung S5s handhelds, equipped with OtterBox® cases and mobile device management (MDM) software.
Result: Successfully replaced 2,500 handhelds across North America and minimized downtime to improve efficiency, accuracy, and connectivity.
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Barcoding Helps U.S. Home Decor Retailer Save Time and Money by Transitioning to Android
Barcoding GoLive Services™ creates a tailored solution to make deployment and maintenance easy.
Background: Barcoding’s client, a major U.S. retailer known for interior décor, brings artisan and designer home goods into living rooms around the world. This client is tasked with tracking an array of furniture and home accessory inventory around the globe.
Challenges: The crucial but often tedious workload of transitioning to a new set of devices can be complicated. Barcoding’s client was looking for a partner to smooth the transition and provide a solution that they could get up and running within minutes across the company’s 100+ store locations.
Solution: By digging into the unique demands of our client’s specific supply process, we created a solution to deploy Android devices across locations while keeping the transition as light-weight as possible.
Results: With the transition complete, the furniture, housewares, and home accessories retailer is poised to reduce
operating hours by 20-30 percent by using brand-new devices that were custom-tailored to fulfill the company’s specific needs.
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Barcoding Develops Custom Active Tracking for National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Colorado
BLE device tracking provides visibility across a mountain resort.
Background: At its annual Winter Sports Clinic event, veterans are challenged to overcome perceived limitations through adaptive skiing, sled hockey, and other activities.
Challenges: The clinic required coordination on multiple fronts, but did not have a way to track where equipment was being used over the duration of the event. Barcoding was brought on board to devise and implement a solution to track the movement and utilization of the hardware inventory.
Solution: Barcoding suggested pivoting to a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) solution, which would enable them to obtain detailed location information whenever needed. We collaborated with our partner Link Labs to devise custom monitoring software.
Results: The Barcoding team coordinated a smooth deployment. We ensured coverage for nearly twenty different sites, starting with the equipment-heavy IT room and conference room areas, and ending with first-aid stations on the mountain.
“The founder of Link Labs, Brian Ray, and many of our founding employees served in the Navy, so it was especially meaningful for us to be able to partner with Barcoding to give a little back to veterans who have given so much.”
― Pike reynolds, SVP of Field Operations, Link Labs
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Summa Akron City Hospital, Tracking Cot Movement in the ER
Background: Summa Health System is one of the largest integrated delivery systems in Ohio and represents more than 2,000 licensed inpatient beds. Outpatient care is extended throughout the area in 9 community health centers.
Challenges: An overcrowding dilemma at Summa Akron City Hospital created a shortage of beds and hospital staff, meaning EMS squads had to wait to unload patients. Reduce wait times for both EMS squads and patients and streamline ER services.
Solution: Barcoding’s RFID cot-tracking solution. RFID tags affixed to cots, and Barcoding’s CaptureTech CTR3100 RFID Reader.
Results: Access to critical data from its ER entrance. The ability to treat more patients in less time so EMS squads can move on to the next emergency. More efficient staffing and decreased patient wait times.
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All About Accuracy: Canton Port Services Streamlines Data Collection to Enhance Efficiency
Background: Barcoding, Inc. streamlined the Canton’s Port operations by eliminating time wasted from manually entering in all pertinent information.
Challenges: Workers manually entered all pertinent information into the system, and then spent additional time checking entries, fixing errors and emailing spreadsheets.
Solution: Canton has increased data accuracy and integrity in its receiving, load-out, and customs clearing processes. On the receiving end, Canton has reduced the time spent capturing and inputting each unit’s information from 10 minutes to 30 seconds.
Results: Workers now simply type in the last six digits of the VIN, which pulls up the corresponding vehicle on a monitor and generates two barcodes. By scanning the appropriate barcode, Canton automatically updates its partner’s inventory in real time.
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Tech-Savvy Carton Manufacturer Tracks Pallets in Real Time with RFID
Originally published in The Barcode News.
Background: Accord Carton is a third-generation, family-owned producer of unique folding cartons. Headquartered in Alsip, Ill., with an additional location in Grand Rapids, Mich., Accord Carton delivers quality-finished cartons to companies in a variety of industries.
Challenges: Manual data entry was time-consuming and put Accord Carton at risk for errors. Accord Carton was unable to produce pallet-level reports and lacked real-time insight into inventory.
Solution: RFID pallet-tracking system from Barcoding, consisting of RFID RealView™ software and Impinj RFID readers. System integration with existing ERP and WMS databases.
Results: Obtained the ability to track and monitor pallet movement in real time. Eliminated time-consuming manual data entry and reported the most accurate inventory levels to date.
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Community College Students get a real Supply Chain Experience
Barcoding, Inc. donates Asset Management System to Anne Arundel Community College (AACC).
Background: AACC is a fully accredited, nationally recognized, public, two-year institution. AACC offers 225 programs of study and more than 3,500 courses including a supply chain management program.
Challenges: Lack of organizational system, which led to wasted time due to manually sorting through multiple bags of inventory to find a specific piece.
Solution: Barcoding, Inc. designed an inventory tracking solution, which includes IntelliTrack’s Warehouse Management System (WMS), a PC, barcode scanner and a wireless handheld tracking device. Clothing, costumes and other items used by the AACC Dance Department are checked-in/checked-out by students.
Results: Barcoding, Inc. improved inventory management, streamlined processes, reduced costs of lost items, reduced amount of time to manage, and provided a hands-on experience for students to apply logistics knowledge.
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Front Gate Tickets Deploys Mobile Ticket Scanning Solution and Asset Management System
Background: Front Gate Tickets is an Austin, Texas-based provider of ticketing, fulfillment, marketing, and RFID solutions for venues, artists, promoters, and festivals.
Challenge: The hardware that ran its ticket scanning app was outdated and lacked flexibility. In addition, Front Gate Tickets sought a way to accurately track equipment deployed around the country.
Solution: Handheld mobile scanning solution running on Android OS and integrated with existing software app, as well as an asset management solution.
Result: Gained new data collection capacities in the ticket scanning process, doubled efficiency in barcode scanning and achieved accurate asset management and tracking capabilities.
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Cold Storage Case Study: A Cooler Way of Tracking Temperature-controlled Freight
Background: H&M Bay, Inc. is the premier logistics provider of frozen and refrigerated Less-than-Truckload (LTL) goods.
Challenge: The existing pallet tracking system was often unreliable, required frequent manual data entry and hampered the receiving process.
Solution: Barcode scanning system from Barcoding, Inc., consisting of handheld scanners, printers, rugged vehicle mounts computers and barcode labels.
Result: Improved efficiency and accuracy in tracking and storing pallets; enhanced worker productivity and expedited the receiving process.
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Azteca Foods Automates the Ability to Track and Trace Pallets
Summary: Founded in 1969, Azteca Foods, Inc. is a family-owned and operated leader in the Mexican foods category. Azteca offers a wide variety of products that meet the needs of consumers, chefs and manufacturing partners through retail, food service and industrial businesses – both domestic and global. Products include softer and fresher tortillas and ready-to-bake salad shells under the Azteca brand. Azteca is headquartered in Chicago, where it operates in a 100,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, which employs more than 135 people.
Background: Azteca Foods, Inc. is a family-owned and operated leader in the Mexican foods category.
Challenge: Azteca sought a way to track pallets of goods moving throughout its warehouse by assigning a unique identification numbers to pallets as they come off the line.
Solution: Barcoding, Inc.’s barcode scanning system comprising handheld computers, a customized mobile software application, an internally hosted web service, and network extenders.
Result: Achieved full traceability of pallets moving into its finished goods warehouse, eliminated time-consuming manual data entry processes, and increased accuracy.
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