So you've decided now is the time to upgrade your operation and implement a barcode printing solution. Or maybe you're considering upgrading your existing solution and are unsure where to start. Thankfully barcode printing solutions are one of the easier systems you can implement in a retail, warehouse, or manufacturing operation. Even so, there are some important considerations to keep in mind before you take the plunge. This guide will take you through the questions and considerations we walk our clients through when we're building them a labeling system. By the end, you should have enough information to get started.
Many warehouses, manufacturers, and other businesses still track much of their inventory and processes on paper or with spreadsheets. But manual tracking often leads to human error, inaccurate inventory counts, out-of-stocks, overstocks, poor replenishment, and missed sales opportunities or excessive operating costs.
If your business is struggling with any of these issues, then you’re not alone. Many organizations inevitably reach a point where their outdated tracking methods are unsustainable and they need to implement a barcode labeling and tracking system.
Fortunately, barcoding is relatively easy and affordable to get up and running. You can start with a single barcode printer and some printing and labeling supplies, or you can work with a third-party provider to pre-print barcode labels for you.
In either case, you can deploy barcoding quickly, at relatively low cost, in as little as a few days. Once you’re printing or procuring your labels and applying them to the items or assets you need to track, you can start scanning your barcodes with a smartphone, tablet, barcode scanner, or mobile computer that connects with your business systems or even your spreadsheet software to help you update quantities, status, locations, and other details.
In most cases, by implementing barcoding in your inventory management and other key processes, you’ll immediately see a reduction in stock issues and errors. You’ll also gain much better visibility into your inventory and operations, with far less labor and cost required to track and manage it all.
If those are outcomes you’d love to achieve in your operations, then start by assessing your current situation and whether barcoding is right for you.
Is Barcoding Right for Your Needs?
First, it’s important to evaluate your current situation and determine if now is the time to move to barcoding. Start by asking several key questions about your business:
- Do you have clear, accurate and real-time visibility into your inventory levels?
- Are your stock levels optimized to maximize availability and minimize excess stock?
- Are your inventory counts accurate, and can you conduct them quickly and efficiently?
- Are you confident that your inventory management is as efficient as it can be?
- Are your current tracking methods helping you save time, labor and cost?
If your answer to any of these questions is “no,” then it’s probably time to reconsider your current inventory management and tracking systems and replace them with barcoding.
Different Barcoding Approaches
Depending on your barcoding needs and situation, you have two main options:
- Invest in a barcode label printer and print labels yourself.
- Outsource your label printing to a third-party supplier.
Typically, unless you’re only tracking a relatively small number of items with little variability in part numbers, serial numbers, or other identifying information, or if you need to pre-print colors or graphics on every label, you’ll probably want to do your own barcode label printing. However, if your situation is the right fit for outsourcing, then a third-party provider can provide you with pre-printed labels.
In most cases, though, your best option will be to purchase a barcode label printer or multiple printers, depending on the size of your operation and the number and type of labels you’ll need to print. There are different sizes and form factors of barcode printers available to match the volume of your label printing needs, where you need to operate your printer, and how much space is available.
Pro Tips to Select The Right Hardware
Your barcode printing systems are only as good as the hardware you’re using to run them. Here are some tips when selecting hardware.
Barcode Scanners
Consider how far away your barcodes will be when trying to scan them. Is there a chance that they’ll be on high shelves or other hard-to-reach locations? If so, make sure you buy barcode scanners with enough range. Durability is another consideration. Most standard barcode scanners are built to withstand the occasional fall. But if you’re in a warehouse environment where employees might be working in high locations, or where moisture is a concern, it might make sense to upgrade to an industrial scanner with a better drop spec and environmental sealing.
Below we have compiled a list of our most popular barcode scanners. We've divided them into catagories: standard use barcode scanners and industrial barcode scanners. The order of the scanners doesn't neccesarily indiciate which one is better than other — for the most part scanners in each category function very similarly.
Standard-Use Scanners
Zebra DS2208 — USB Barcode Scanner
Zebra DS2278 — Bluetooth Barcode Scanner
DataLogic Quickscan QD2500 — USB Barcode Scanner
Industrial Scanners
Zebra DS3608 — Standard Range USB Barcode Scanner
Zebra DS3608-ER — Extended Range USB Barcode Scanner
Zebra DS3678 — Standard Range Bluetooth Barcode Scanner
Zebra DS3678-ER — Extended Range Bluetooth Barcode Scanner
Barcode Printers
Ultimately, barcode label printers are typically divided into the following categories:
- Industrial barcode label printers: Engineered for printing high volumes of labels or printing in industrial environments where printer durability and resistance to dust, dirt, extreme temperatures, or other environmental conditions are critical.
- Desktop barcode label printers: Engineered for lower-volume label printing in office environments, smaller spaces, and other locations where conditions aren’t as extreme as an industrial operation.
- Mobile barcode label printers: Provide a wearable solution that you can wear on a belt or shoulder strap, so you can print labels on demand, wherever they’re needed.
- Inkjet Label Printers: These printers are actually closer to the inkjet printer you may have at home. They offer high-quality, color label printing with varying print widths and features to suit different business needs.
All of these devices can connect to your other devices and systems wirelessly via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or, for industrial and desktop printers, you can use a wired connection such as USB, an Ethernet or serial cable, and other common or optional wired methods and protocols.
When deciding which printer is best for your operation, we typically ask customers to consider three questions:
Question 1: Do you Print Less Than 1,000 Labels Per Week?
Label printers are broken up into two categories based on intended print volume. The first type, desktop printers, are designed to print less than 1000 labels a week on average. If you need anything more than that, you should consider using a tabletop industrial printer. Using a desktop printer to print more labels than what it’s designed to handle can cause it to burn out faster than it’s expected lifespan, ultimately costing you more money in the long run.
Question 2: How durable do your labels need to be?
There are two types of labels you can print: direct thermal and thermal transfer. Direct thermal labels are usually made of paper and are coated with a unique heat-reactive material. Because of this, these types of labels are not waterproof and will fade when left in the sun. If you need waterproof labels or want them to withstand sun exposure and scuffing, you’ll need thermal transfer labels. These plastic-based labels use a special roll of ink-covered ribbon to apply a thin layer of text over the label.
Some printers will only print direct thermal labels, so if you need thermal transfer printing, make sure the printer you’re ordering can accommodate the extra ribbon required. All thermal transfer printers can print direct thermal, so if you need both types of labels or think you might need thermal transfer labels one day, go with a thermal transfer printer to be safe. Call us for help if you’re unsure what a printer has.
Question 3: How many things are you connecting to and what are they?
USB, Ethernet, and Serial are the common connection types. USB printers connect directly to the computer and are the easiest to set up but can often only be used by that one computer. Ethernet printers connect to the router and are discoverable on your network, so all computers on that network can print to them with ease. The downside is that these are slightly tricker to set up and require you to run an Ethernet cord. This solution is ideal for larger operations.
Labels
A barcode is only as good as the label it’s printed on. If the label falls off or is damaged to the point it’s no longer readable, your tracking system may grind to a halt.
There are two types of labels you can use: direct thermal and thermal transfer. Direct thermal labels are usually made of paper and are coated with a special heat-reactive material. Thermal Transfer labels are usually plastic-based and use a special roll of ink-covered ribbon to apply a thin-layer of text over the label.
We generally recommend you use thermal transfer labels for tracking assets, especially if the assets are going to be moved around a lot or may be exposed to sun or moisture. If an asset may be exposed to extreme heat (say being left in a truck in a very hot environment), exposed to extreme cold (being used in a freezer environment), or may come into contact with corrosive substances (cleaning chemicals and industrial lubricants), you may need to use specialized labels to ensure they hold up.
If you’re labeling inventory designed to move quickly through your interior operation, you can probably get away with a direct thermal label. These labels tend to be cheaper than a thermal transfer label, so labeling potentially thousands of products at a time is a much more economical practice. Some direct thermal labels are also designed to be somewhat moisture-resistant in the short term.
Remember the barcode itself! We recently created a guide that covers some things you should consider when creating barcodes.
For more help on choosing the right label, we made a free label selector tool to help you sort labels by size, label type, color, and more! Or feel free to contact our experts at the POSGuys to request our Label and Supplies Selector Guide and get professional guidance and recommendations.
A Quick Note on Barcodes For Inventory & Asset Tracking...
One mistake that many business owners make when they're developing their barcoding solutions for use in an inventory and asset tracking system is neglecting the actual barcode itself - specifically choosing what information to encode on the label. Here's some advice we give our clients. Start with what you're looking to track. Some business owners want to track every item in their business and keep tabs of their inventory - others only want to track the tools and assets they use on a day-to-day basis. The approach you take is up to you but wherever you go, ensure that every item you’re tracking has a unique description and a part number (also known as a Stock Keeping Unit or SKU for short).
Descriptions should be concise enough for quick readability on a report but detailed enough that anyone in your organization - from the warehouse stocker to the accountant - can get an idea of what is being described.
Next are the part numbers. If you’re a retailer selling products from other vendors or manufacturers, your products might already have UPC barcodes that you can use to simplify the process. If you need to make them yourself, there are two general ways you can approach their creation. Both options have their pros and cons.
Option 1 is a descriptive part number with information embedded into the code. For example, a hat company making a size 7 ½ blue suede fedora might use “FED-SD-02-75” where “02” refers to a color and “75” refers to size. This type of part number makes it easy to identify information about the product and its location but it also requires extra training to decipher parts of the code and requires extra work to maintain consistency across product lines.
Option 2 is a serialized part number where numbers are generated in numerical order regardless of the item. For example, your hat from above might now just be “3156” These codes are easy to generate for new products and require less training for new hires but can make it harder to identify items at a glance. Avoid starting numbers with 0 as some software like Excel will automatically drop it from the start.
Want to learn more about building an inventory or asset tracking system? You're in luck! We've written an entire 23-page guide on building tracking systems that save You time & money. You'll learn how to solve business pain points with well-chosen inventory/asset tracking software and what to consider and avoid when selecting the best hardware for your business's tracking system.
Pro Tips to Select The Right Label Printing Software
One of the biggest choices you’ll have to make is what kind of label printing software you are going to use.
If you’re a retail or restaurant location, your POS software might already have a built-in system you can use. If you’re a manufacturer, you might have warehouse management software that does the trick. These are great because they’ll automatically add and subtract inventory as you take orders or receive product.
If you don’t already have software with built-in functionality, there are a few things to consider when picking software:
- Will it integrate with other software you might be using?
- Is your inventory stored locally or hosted in the cloud? If on the cloud, how is that data being backed up?
- How customizable is the software? Can entry fields be changed to meet your unique needs?
- Is it Windows, Android, or iOS based? Mobile applications are great for inventory management because you can pair them with mobile computers that have integrated scanners - improving efficiency overall.
- If you’re a manufacturer, consider software with forecasting tools that look at historical inventory data and make suggestions on when to buy new product. Some can even place orders automatically to ensure you always have what you need.
POSGuys sells a range of software to meet different requirements. We've listed a few of our most popular options below. We've found that Zebra Z-Designer is best for entry-level users who want a familiar drag-and-drop editor similar to something like Microsoft Word. Seagull Bartender is another solid option. It's similar to Z-Designer but features a few advanced web printing features that some growing organizations might find useful. Finally, if you're looking for a free option, we've developed a free Android app called Label Print that can print pre-formmated labels with customized data. This software is ideal for organizations who want to try out barcode printing but aren't ready to make a full investment. Give us a call and we can help pair you with software that’s right for your business.
Popular Label Software
Z-Designer is best for entry-level users who want a drag-and-drop editor like Microsoft Word.
Seagull Bartender is similar to Z-Designer but features a few advanced web printing features some find useful.
POSGuys Label Print is a free Android-based app. Modifiable entry forms fit your operation's workflow and speed up employee onboarding with minimal up-front investment or technical expertise.
Zebra Z-Designer
Seagull Bartender
POSGuys Label Print
Making it Easy With Complete Kits
Whew - that was a lot! It’s normal to feel a little overwhelmed right now. Do you still have some questions? Do you want to make the entire process a little easier? That’s where working with value-added resellers like POSGuys can help! If you want to make it really easy, we've created a series of barcoding and inventory tracking kits that can get you up and running fast. Want something a little more bespoke? We can help you build a custom solution that meets your needs?
Why work with a partner like us?
We can provide you with peace of mind and confidence when building your solution.
We know what questions to ask, what technology is best for certain applications, and will be by your side through every step of the journey. For over 21 years, we’ve helped hundreds of organizations design and implement systems that have saved their operations time and money.
You maintain freedom of choice.
When you reach out to a manufacturer or software developer, you’re going to be sold a single solution that promises to solve all your issues. Value-added resellers like us work with many different providers at once, so we can help you compare and contrast the features and strong points of the different solutions on the market. We will make a recommendation, but our goal is to give you the information you need to make an informed choice.
You’ll be supported.
Some companies focus only on software, others only on hardware. We can do both. We operate a U.S-Based technical support team that provides lifetime troubleshooting support on all the hardware we sell. This ensures that no matter what happens, you have a single point of contact who can help resolve the issue. We also have a custom software development department, ensuring that no matter what you need, we can provide a solution that fits your needs.
