RM Online - Barcoding is a technology whose time has come

If there were a way to use technology to get more rental product in or out the door and require fewer employees to do it, wouldn't we use it? Wouldn't a more efficient way of operating a rental business be something we'd install in our businesses immediately? Of course! But we are missing the boat.

Our suppliers may be the best in the world, but here is one area where they've let us down, big time - and to a large extent, it's really our own fault: industry standard barcoding of all our rental equipment is simply not here, not yet. Yes, some of the manufacturers barcode the masonry saw or compactor for their own manufacturing and shipping control, but we need the piece of equipment itself barcoded, not the box it came in, for our own purposes.

Most of the major rental software suppliers that market their product in the rental industry have a method for us to print our own barcode labels, but it's a cumbersome and expensive process. Printing the labels, coordinating the numbers within our computer systems, applying them to the equipment, etc., are all labor-intensive tasks. No one has a surplus of quality labor these days. The 80/20 rule applies: 80 percent of our rental equipment must be coded at the source. Having to print and apply more than 20 percent of our equipment with barcode labels is simply not cost-effective. It must come to us already coded and ready to go into rental. Scan it to receive it, scan it to rent it, scan it to check it in, scan it to service it - all very simple and doable. Last week, at my supermarket, even the apples and oranges had stickers with those funny little lines on them. If an apple can be coded, it's not unreasonable to expect that our suppliers can do it for a power trowel, too. And not with a flimsy little paper sticker that will be history after the first pressure washer sees it.

We need a durable, replaceable barcode identification that will allow us to benefit from the efficiencies that barcoding systems can bring. The computer technology and scanning hardware has existed for years to barcode and scan at the sales counter. Here we are going into the next millennium and we are still typing the equipment number over and over into our computers systems. What can be more inefficient than that? If one of our vendors wanted to sell to Wal-Mart, the Wal-Mart buyers wouldn't even read his sales proposal if all his products weren't barcoded. We don't hold our suppliers to the same rule because we're caught in a vicious circle. We don't use scanning as part of the rental process because nothing is barcoded. Why? Because we haven't yet demanded it.

Time's up - we need it now. Imagine taking inventory with everything coded so it's easily and quickly counted. A definitely cumbersome process becomes much more cost-effective. The cost to purchase the required hardware is not really an issue compared to the cost of hiring more of those hard-to-find employees.

Hertz can check in my rental car in 10 seconds, bill my credit card, print me a receipt, thank me and send me on my way in less time than it takes to get my bags out of the trunk. Why can't we be that efficient in our rental stores for our customers? They deserve it.