We recently got a call from Minnesota Diversified Industries (MDI) regarding Lexicon's used/refurbished barcode label printers. They wanted to replace one of the Zebra printers in their St Paul facility; they use Zebra thermal transfer printers to produce customer specific labels as well as to print shipping and barcode labels for their US Postal Service packaging and fulfillment operation.  They're pretty good at it, too -- read how they recently produced and shipped postal tote number 75,000,000 to the Postal Service on their site here!

MDI is a Non-Profit Enterprise employing people with disabilities while delivering high quality products & services to business customers.  In addition to providing MDI-specific job opportunities and vocational support, they offer programs and services to adults with disabilities; they also assist individuals to prepare for and obtain jobs in the community. They are able to do this by partnering with various businesses and providing services tailored to each customer's unique requirements.

Mitch Rogers, a Lexicon Business Development team member, worked with MDI to ensure that we could support their printer spec requirements.  After some successful testing, we determined that a fully refurbished Zebra 140xiIII would meet their needs to a "T".  As we learned more about and reflected on MDI's mission, Lexicon decided to donate the Zebra printer to MDI out of admiration and support for the good work that they are doing.

The Lexicon team was able to fill the order in about a week and Mitch reports that the "printer is working wonderfully” for their operation.  Read their blog entry about Lexicon's donation here.

We believe that it's the important to support good works in our communities, and MDI is an organization that inspires us with their special mission.

Seeing leading technology companies like Hewlett Packard and CDW making significant commitments to the "remanufactured" technology equipment business is another validation, in our view, of the viability of used equipment as a solution for enterprise and business-level customers.  As this is written, Lexicon has large volumes of Zebra, Intermec, and O'Neil thermal transfer printers in stock which our team has beautifully refurbished (most of them look brand new), as well as Motorola or Symbol portable or mobile terminals (MC9060, MC5040, and more).  Intermec CK handheld devices as well.

In the meantime we'll share this:  in February we began the physical expansion of our Conyers, GA service center.  Two primary catalysts for the expansion:  1) repair volume -- we had simply outgrown our space and had to have more depot floor capacity, office/admin/business development space, and our warehouse was way too small; 2) we wanted to implement a newly-designed repair strategy (on high volume lines of technology equipment we repair on a depot-basis) to improve scale economies, repair throughput, lower our per unit repair costs, and improve our already high quality.  To make that a reality we needed the physical room to utilize new processes our team has designed to incorporate multiple strategies for automated bulk or "power-repair" actions in the "pre-", "in-", and "post-" repair phases.  It's really exciting stuff and we believe our customers are going to love what Lexicon can provide in terms of repair & maintenance quality and value (and volume) in 2010.

We'll post some pictures over the next few weeks so you can see some of the Lexicon innovations in process and get a look at our expanded facility.  The great news for our customers is that we continue to make the critical capital investments in the physical assets (our expansion, etc.) and the digital, information-based assets (RepairEngine® and LexiconTech.com which you'll hear some exciting new stuff about soon) to ensure that you get the most from your IT hardware investment -- whether we're talking mobile barcode handhelds from Symbol Motorola or Intermec, printers from Zebra or O'Neil -- or POS systems and scanners from NCR, printers from Hewlett-Packard or Printronix, etc., etc. 

Nobody is going to make Technology Equipment Repair & Maintenance, or managing same, easier or better than Lexicon -- and we're going to keep proving it in 2010.

Fifty-seven years ago, on October 7, 1952, the US Patent Office issued a patent to two American inventors (Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver) for a bulls-eye shaped barcode (yes, even though their symbol was "round" - we now refer to it as the first "bar" code) and a scanning apparatus designed to interpret the bulls-eye pattern. Silver and Woodland started as grad students at the Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University), to work on a problem that was brought to them by a local Philadelphia grocer who wanted a system that would "read" product information during checkout. Barcode eventually started to take off in the 70's with the adoption of the Universal Product Code standard by the grocery industry, and as we all know, the rest is history. Thus was born an extremely successful technology -- one that has found its way into applications far beyond grocery and that were not imaginable 50 or even 25 years ago.  For this paragraph, I borrowed heavily from a nice, concise arcticle by Mary Bellis on the history of barcode at about.com.

Today is good time to reflect on the genius borne of the Woodward and Silver collaboration: described in their patent applications as "article classification . . . through the medium of identifying patterns".  These young guys invented, envisioned and paved the way for easily produced (usually simply printed) patterns (that is, barcode symbols), which could be readily affixed to  just about any object that someone might want to keep track of.  They knew it would be relatively simple to read (and interpret) the barcode patterns with light emitted from a "scanner", which was reflected off the barcode pattern. Their vision has led directly to the creation of incalculable economic and societal benefits over the last 35 or 40 years.

Finally, it's been popular to speculate for the last few years about the imminent demise of the lowly and now familiar, "simple" barcode -- choose your new candidate for replacement champion from this incomplete list: two dimensional symbologies, smart cards, memory buttons, and the latest, and certainly the contest entrant which has breached the conscience of the consumer, Radio Frequency Identification or RFID.  However -- my advice is to expect the old garden variety barcode to be with us for a long time to come (and since I'm part way out on the limb, I'll just go ahead and say "for decades").  Why?  The answer is cost advantage -- barcode "marking" (that's industry jargon for the act of printing or affixing a barcode to a product or object) is cheap. For products which are packaged and sold at retail, adding a barcode is essentially "free" -- and "free" is a tough price for any competing technology to beat.  Innovations in enterprise mobile computers, (like Motorola/Symbol, Intermec, HHP) scanners, and printing technologies (Zebra, O'Neil, Datamax) continue to enhance the application opportunities for the good old barcode, and will for many years to come.

You can read the article here and learn more about RepairEngine® here or give us a call or an email at info@lexicontech.com.

All right -- the last day of August.  Everyone knows what that means  -  just a few more days until:  "Toe Meets Leather!" (credit to the late, great Al Ciraldo).  Yeah -- bring it on!  Spirits are soaring, the juices are starting to surge and of course, everybody is still undefeated so all things are possible, especially in the minds of younger fans.  We've got them of all ages at Lexicon and like most places our loyalties (as represented by Lexicon team members) are spread far and wide.  We've got allegiances here (this an incomplete list) that include:  Alabama, NC State, Virginia Tech, UVA, Clemson, University of South Carolina, Wake Forest, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Miami, Troy State, Ohio State, and Valdosta State.

What's that got to do with our repair and maintenance business for Symbol/Motorola or Intermec scanners and  portable terminals or Zebra printers?  Hmm.  Well, I did get my parking pass the other day and it's got a barcode on it  -- so how about enterprise mobile devices to manage access and control of game day parking?

That's OK.   I should say stay tuned to this space for some exciting news coming soon on RepairEngine®.  The design and development team has been focusing all summer (not day dreaming about kick-off) and plans to release more good stuff in the early fall around payment options, repair routing to support all your repair vendors, and more reporting power and options, and also Real Time updates to make managing repair and controlling your enterprise mobility assets easier and better.   Of course the price is right for enterprise mobility equipment users -- FREE!  If you haven't tried RepairEngine® yet -- make your life better and signup here.

And good luck to your favorite team this fall :-)

RepairEngine®, the revolutionary Repair Management System that delivers a "better repair experience" for barcode and enterprise mobility equipment users, is celebrating its 6th birthday this July. RepairEngine's® development team has been working to continuously enhance the system over the years by incorporating innovative features such as Dashboard and the "Grid" System seamlessly into RepairEngine®. We want to make RepairEngine® THE tool to use when managing the repair or maintenance of any Symbol, Intermec, Zebra, or any other kind of barcode and enterprise mobility equipment.

Its not every day that we celebrate a birthday at Lexicon Technologies, so we decided, "Whats a birthday without a cake?" This was icing on the cake last Thursday, pardon the pun, as we already had a three day weekend coming up for the 4th of July!

Let us know what you think -- we're determined to make RepairEngine® the best place on the web for enterprise mobility (Symbol / Motorola, Intermec, Zebra, Datalogic) asset and repair management.

And though the inner-child in us may wish for only a "happily-ever-after" economy, the grizzled, history-reading capitalist in our nature is aware that the business cycle is as real (and as certain) as the changing of the seasons - even if economists, those "dismal scientists", are somewhat less adept at predicting its comings and goings.  The expansion and contraction of economic activity (and the success or failure of firms) has been a standard feature of free market capitilism and presumably, also of what we've got now:  a "mostly free market with a government-provided, taxpayer-funded safety net for some big guys on Wall Street".  

So, while the Treasury Department will use the public purse to save some, the great majority of economic participants will have to claw back the old-fashioned way:  we'll learn from our mistakes BECAUSE we'll have to pay for them.   I mean, does anyone really think that speculators who bought credit default swaps from AIG (and who were subsequently bailed out when U.S. taxpayers stepped up with a cool $150 billion) really learned any of the valuable lessons that a free market can impart to those who take foolish financial risks?  I don't think so; it takes an "actual loss" to make one respect that old hypothetical "risk of loss".

Anyway, for all those non-bailoutees among us, here's some upside.  There is a lot of good product on (or coming to) the market and it will be value-priced.  Myriad retail shutterings and failures will lead to substantial amounts of quality equipment, tools, fixtures, hardware, and the like coming available.  The next few weeks and months could be an ideal time to look for bargains in many areas, and thus presents an opportunity for well-capitilized organizations to actually reduce their budgeted capital outlay, while nonetheless positioning to expand market share.    Well, if you can't join 'em (in the bailout), then beat 'em . . . with basic, sound, risk-respecting execution.  Don't overpay.

In our corner of the economy, legacy barcode and enterprise mobility equipment from Symbol Technologies, Intermec, Zebra, Handheld Products, etc., we've found some of the most popular barcode and rf portable data terminals, barcode scanners, and printers and we've got them if you need them.  And we've got a great repair and maintenance capability to keep your existing barcode and enterprise mobility infrastructure runnning strong.  After all, good old American quality, value, & frugality never go out of style.

Since we're in the business of providing repair and maintenance for Symbol, Intermec and Zebra equipment and we also sell a fair amount of popular legacy barcode equipment (which is a nice way of saying we sell a lot of used Symbol, used Intermec, and used Zebra gear), we're in a position to observe trends in current and future barcode & mobility equipment usage.  Over the last sixty days or so, we've seen an upswing in customer inquiries and orders for devices like the Zebra 140xiIII, the Intermec T2425, and the Symbol SPT 1846.  These particular models are just representative examples -- frankly demand in general for maintenance of barcode/mobility gear that is 5 years + old and older is more robust than we've seen in the last 6 - 12 months.

Given the daily headlines about the "crisis du jour" in the U.S. economy, enterprises of all types are looking for creative ways to conserve cash and still meet operational objectives.  We believe that many more decision makers, of late, are recognizing the benefit and value of maintaining an existing installed base of Symbol MC9060 or Intermec CK61 (or similar PDTs) terminals and are instead, putting off a major technology refresh until the business cycle turns.  Maintaining a proven technology platform that is still supporting enterprise business objectives -- even one that is 5, 7 or 10 years old -- by adding quality used/refurbished equipment to that platform as needed, can make good business sense and save big dollars for your company -- at a time when we could be staring down a major recession.

Fortunately, for the sake of economy (which means there is an opportunity for you to save your organization some maintenance budget money here) the reverse is also true:  it makes practical and economic sense to use a return-to-depot strategy for Intermec, Datamax, or Zebra printers in approximately the 55 lbs. and under weight category.

Why It Matters.  First there are a ton of barcode label printers in this size class in use today, so there is a lot of money to potentially be saved.  There are a host of examples of field-proven label printers of this type from Zebra (Zebra S600, Zebra S400), Intermec (the Intermec 3400, Intermec 4420), and many more that do a great job in industrial, distribution, retail and healthcare environments.   Most of these devices are smaller, so-called "table-top" barcode label printers and will range in weight anywhere from about 17lbs on the light end up to that mid-50lb threshold on the heavy end.  These printers, when properly packed (wrapped in bubble wrap about three times around, placed in a properly-sized, heavy duty corrugated box) can ship via UPS or Fedex ground service, safely and reliably. 

The advantage to the user organization in this case is the savings and (and usually, the repair quality).  Depot repair is much less expensive to provide than on-site service for the repair or maintenance company.  There are obviously no travel costs (tech travel time, vehicles, fuel) and the really big thing is that in a repair center, you get great economies of scale.  Over time, the depot-based technician will have at least a four times advantage in productivity (on average) compared to the "road warrior" tech.  The on-site printer maintenance customer pays the freight -- the depot repair printer customer reaps the savings benefit.

Also, because the repair center (when it's well run) is the home of all the spare parts, all the standard repair diagnostics and repair processes, etc., repair and maintenance quality should be more reliably and consistently delivered on average, when compared to on-site. 

Finally, what makes a label printer "return-to-depot" service strategy really viable for this class of Zebra or Intermec printer is that spare printers are so affordable.  Typically, for only a few hundred dollars, high quality used and refurbished spare units are widely available in the market so that your operation doesn't suffer downtime.

Maybe.  We frequently get asked by clients who use our barcode scanners and portable data terminals repair center to support their (Symbol scanner or Intermec scanner and printer devices, typically) about whether we can also repair their barcode label printers (usually Zebra printer or Intermec printer; sometimes Datamax printer or Sato printer).  The short answer is usually "yes", but frankly these label-printing sub-systems often make for more complicated service strategy decisions than many users realize . . . so this multi-part post will offer some keys to consider as an OPS Team creates a support plan.

Number One and don't laugh:  How much do my label printers weigh?  Two common sense rules of thumb apply here, and though Zebra label printers aren't sold by the pound, the more expensive the Zebra, the heavier Zebra. And the real kicker, the heavier the Zebra (or Intermec or Sato) the trickier and more trouble it is to safely ship.

Take special precautions when you're shipping heavy (70 lbs plus or minus and up), wide-web (more than 6 inches wide) thermal/thermal transfer label printers; unless you ship in the original container with all the original packing, then box the printer, wrap it/pad it well in in about three layers of bubble-wrap (no polystyerene peanuts, please!), strap it to a pallet, and ship it for repair service via an LTL carrier.  Specify that it be returned to you in the same manner.  If you ignore this guideline and ship via a parcel carrier ground service, be prepared for carrier damage due to the weight/dimensions/design of the printer in combination with inadequate packaging.

The bottom line with these wide-web workhorse printers like the Zebra 220xiIII, or a similar model from Intermec, Datamax, or Sato is you should consider an onsite printer maintenance contract just because they don't travel well. We're not minimizing other important issues like the nature of the application (i.e., can I afford to be without the printer for hours, days or more, etc.), the availability of print capacity on other printers or lines in your shop, or the presence of on-site spares - but from our experience and that of many Lexicon customers, don't miss this simple truth -- it will save you heartache.

Note that our general recommendation in this case was for an onsite maintenance contract for heavy, wide-web thermal label printers.  Change any of these variables and we've got other, and we believe better ideas to consider for Zebra printer or Intermec printer maintenance and repair support.

Check Part Two of this post for some of those thoughts next week.