Hi All,

My first post heralded the intention to focus on saving you time so what have I experienced over the last few week that got the alarm bells ringing?

Tracking stock taken from the store.

What are the time saving factors?

1. Time spent by your staff writing down what they have taken from the store on the list. (assuming they can find the list and have a pen)

2. Time spent by admin staff deciphering what was written on the list and what it actually is.

3. Time spent typing the item code/description and updating the stock figure in the Spreadsheet or inventory system.

4. Time spent re-counting and looking for stock because you don’t trust the figure on the computer.

5. Time spent explaining to the boss/customer why the job is going to be late because you are waiting for stock when you thought is was already available.

So , what’s the easiest way to reduce the waste and save you more time?

Get a Barcoding system in place

So how does Barcode scanning of the stock as it leaves the store address the 5 waste factors above?
1. It is quicker to scan than write or type – why do you think all retail stores do it?

2. It identifies the product more accurately.

3. It can automatically adjust stock in your inventory system.

Time waste factors 4 & 5 take care of themselves when point 3 is resolved.

So what does it cost to set up a barcoding system?

If you currently have Inventory tracking software like Opto Software then you should only be up for the barcode scanners ( ~ $200 for a decent industrial version), a label printer if you don’t have one and some labour to print out the barcode labels to identify the product ( a week or two of labour – which you know you have to do anyway! )

So , lets say around $2000 for the hardware and set up.

What’s the saving in time and money by implementing a barcoding system?

Wasted time over a week – let’s make a very conservative guess of 3 hours

= cost to the business of around $105 / week = $5040 / year

So , worst case payback in 5 months.

What are you waiting for? Call your IT/Software people now and get it working, at worst you will be saving $5040 / year, at best , my guess is a lot more than that.

We’d love to hear your comments

Till next time – OPTOMAN signing off

(Some call him Tim)