Bar codes help track everything from equipment and maintenance to employees and safety Bar codes aren't just for cereal boxes and library books anymore. They can help you keep track of your equipment and employees. Strandware began marketing its bar code software to the construction industry six months ago, and contractors can use it for everything from recording safety violations to monitoring the equipment at a particular site. Scanning your machines To use BackTrack, contractors must assign each piece of equipment a unique bar code - usually the manufacturer's serial number. The bar codes are then attached to the machines.
Contractors can also place bar codes on employees' identification cards.
Now when an employee takes a piece of equipment from the company lot to a job site he scans the machine's bar code and his bar code with a pen-like wand. He enters into a portable computer the location where he's taking the machine and additional information such as the condition of the equipment. You're checking out the equipment and making someone responsible. Replacing a hand-written system Dell Construction in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, recently replaced a handwritten tracking system with BackTrack. Under the old system, employees wrote in a logbook which tools, equipment or materials they took to a job site.