Month: November 2013

The What, Why, and How of Barcoding

Barcode

Barcodes have only been around since the 1960s, yet it would be hard to imagine a world without them. Over the past several decades, barcodes have become an everyday part of life. Everyone is familiar with the little black and white bars that are stamped on seemingly everything—and with the advent of smartphone apps that can scan and read them, barcodes have taken on a new life for consumers who wish to instantly compare product prices, find suppliers, or locate additional product information.

The fact that they’re so familiar, however, makes it easy to overlook—or take for granted—the enormous impact they can have on businesses that still use paper systems, or other outmoded forms of data management, to track assets and inventory.

Together with the right maintenance management software, barcoding systems can revolutionize a business. But first, it’s vital to understand the different configurations available, and to have the knowledge necessary to persuade key stakeholders that implementing a barcoding system will generate high ROI.

Here’s a breakdown of the “what,” “why,” and “how” of barcoding systems. Continue reading “The What, Why, and How of Barcoding”

How to Customize Inventory Views and Create Basic Reports in ManagerPlus Lightning

Centralizing and standardizing parts inventory data is a critical first step toward cutting costs and improving allocation. But without data navigation know-how, this information will be of little use. ManagerPlus was designed with this in mind, offering intuitive controls that make analysis of inventory data quick and easy. We’ve put together a brief guide on how to use “List Grouping,” “Group Footers,” and “Print List”–a few of the ways ManagerPlus makes it easy to group and arrange data for quick insight and basic reporting.

Click on any image to enlarge. Note that your data will vary likely vary from the below examples.

Step 1

Open ManagerPlus and click on the Inventory module

inventoryv3_1

Step 2

Right click anywhere within the Inventory module and select “Show List Grouping” from the menu that appears. A black bar will appear above the parts list with the prompt, “Drag a column header here to group by that column.” Continue reading “How to Customize Inventory Views and Create Basic Reports in ManagerPlus Lightning”

Recycling ROI: What’s Good for the Environment is Good for Business

Recycling-bins

As the “green” movement has risen to prominence over the past decade, its mission of environmental consciousness-raising has helped to refine and expand recycling practices. Blue waste bins with the triangle arrow symbol, and the rules governing how trash must be sorted before going into them, are now a commonplace part of home and work life for many people.

For businesses, these basic recycling practices are relatively easy and inexpensive to implement. But that can be a problem: once the blue bins are in place, complacency often sets in, sapping the drive to explore some of the more innovative, larger-scale techniques and technologies that can be, in some cases, as good for the bottom line as they are for the environment.

In honor of America Recycles Day, we’ve researched some of these innovative techniques and technologies, and how they can achieve the dual purpose of cutting costs while substantially reducing environmental impact.

The following are just examples, but they should help illustrate the fact that recycling is an evolving field and new technologies are constantly emerging, so it’s important to stay up to date on the latest developments.

Core Charges

Anyone who works in the fleet industry will be familiar with core charges. When a price is quoted for certain auto parts, Continue reading “Recycling ROI: What’s Good for the Environment is Good for Business”