Total Cost of Ownership of a Barcode Verifier: A Use Case

 In Barcode Quality Training

Barcode verifiers are expensive. But price is one kind of number, and cost is another kind. How much does it cost to own a verifier? There are several factors:

  • Maintenance
    • annual re-certification to ISO compliance
  •  Repairs
    • scratched or damaged scanner glass
    • damaged or worn USB cables
    • broken buttons, cracked or damaged housings
  • End of service life replacement

What is the Total Cost of Ownership of a Barcode Verifier?

Together with the purchase price, these are the total cost of ownership.

Unlike many other things you might buy, like your car, there are things you can do to control the total cost of a barcode verifier. Here is what we do in our barcode test lab:

  1. Re-certify the verifier yourself. A PQ (Performance Qualification) Test kit is available from some verifier manufacturers. It contains barcodes with engineered errors; scan them with your verifier and confirm that the verifier reports the errors accurately. If it does, you can re-certify your verifier. This keeps your verifier current, the ISO auditor and your CFO happy.

This also saves the time and cost of shipping the verifier back to the manufacturer, and keeps your verifier on-site and available for use. One PQ test kit can re-certify many verifiers—you do not need multiple copies.

  1. Maintenance contracts are available from some manufacturers, and often this includes the necessary re-certification.

Verifiers change Total Cost of Ownership–they pay for themselves

In a printing or packaging company, a verifier changes the Total Cost of Ownership: verifiers pay for themselves.

While the bookkeeper is writing off the capital investment, the verifier is quietly, steadily and literally paying for itself in savings.  Earlier this month, a verifier in a Pennsylvania textile manufacturer eliminated chargebacks due to bad barcodes. This completely paid for the verifier in the first month of ownership.

 

How does this happen? By:

  • detecting a barcode problem before it becomes a full blown failure
  • avoiding marginal or bad barcodes from escaping into the supply chain
  • strengthening customer trust and loyalty based on documented quality

How does a verifier provide as this quiet protection?  It is no secret–and it is not dramatic. It just avoids mistakes and the resulting costs.

What is the Total Cost of Ownership of a barcode verifier? The cost could be better than break-even. It will save a customer, prevent corrective actions and chargebacks, and it will guard your reputation and your future business. How much you value a worry-free night’s sleep?

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