Introduce barcode scanning to your logistics operation for accurate traceability through the order to delivery process. In regulated sectors, like pharmaceuticals or alcohol, barcode scanning can prove compliance with mandatory traceability requirements. In lower-risk environments, barcode scanning can reduce the risk of errors, to cut costs and improve customer satisfaction. Scan barcodes in the Stream Go mobile driver app using the camera on a consumer smartphone, or the inbuilt laser scanner on a specialised rugged device.
Barcode scanning is all about quality and traceability
What is barcode scanning?
So it’s about getting the right things on the van, and then when you deliver it’s about taking the right things off the van, making sure the goods have arrived where they should have arrived, the right goods are being loaded into the vehicle in the right order.
So that reduces errors. It reduces cost because you’re not redelivering. It improves customer satisfaction because they getting what they expect, at the time they expect. You’ve got all the traceability through
In some industries we work in, that’s really important:
- Coffins – you want to get the right coffin in the right place
- Drugs – you want to get the right drugs in the right place
- Furniture – where there are so many different colourways and variants that are almost the same
How does barcode scanning work?
From loading to unloading to the warehouse to delivery, it’s all through the app on the Google Play store and an iPhone version as well.
You can use a regular smartphone with a camera and it’ll scan perfectly well, and if it’s a relatively low volume that’s fine.
You can also buy ruggedised devices with a laser scanner built-in. Much higher accuracy levels and for volume, much much better.
Often, our customers pass that barcode through the API, so the label is on there long before Stream knows about it and we just get told: “That’s what you’ve got to match to”. We can also produce those labels in Stream. We’re putting QR codes on there – particularly with phones, QR codes scan so much quicker.
Who uses barcode scanning?
There are really two use cases, I would say: the voluntary and the mandatory.
In the voluntary, where it’s their own goods they’re scanning, it’s all about quality and its about reducing costs because you’re not making mistakes, you’re not loading the wrong van with the wrong thing, you’re not having to do return deliveries, you’re not annoying your customers, and you’re not annoying your customers’ customers. It’s the stuff that should be okay:
- Are the right goods on the right vehicle?
- Is it the goods that were destined for there?
- Is it the right colour?
- Is it the right shape?
- Is it the right size?
There are no mistakes to be had. For many of our customers, in the case of unregulated goods, that’s what they get from it. It’s really all about the quality of delivery and showing that process.
In a regulated environment its different, it’s mandatory, it’s part of their job, they’ve just got to do it, they can’t run their businesses without it. But what they can do, is make it easy and friendly and straightforward to scan, to know where the goods are, to report issues. That’s what we do.
There are industries where compliance and traceability is a requirement. Particularly in healthcare products, or tobacco, or alcohol, it becomes more and more critical that you’ve got that end to end traceability. Every scan is logged, every scan is auditable, every scan has got a GPS position. You can tell where it was scanned, who scanned it, when they scanned it. Should something go wrong, should something be stolen, you can at least find the last place it was touched.
In a demo we’ll often ask:
“Do you do scanning? Do you scan?”
They’ll say:
“We don’t, but we’d like to at some point the future”
“That’s great because you will be able to. It’s all there. It’s all built-in. Ready to go. You can use it whenever you want”
“Tick ✔ Move on”
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