When digitizing your inventory, you'll need a few tools to help you along - one of them is labels. But which ones? And where do you get them from? You can learn which labels are best for your inventory process in this blog article. The question of where you can get those labels, is answered in this blog post! Here you'll learn...
... what kinds of label printers are available.
... the pros and cons of owning one.
... what alternatives are there to your own printer.
Do you want to know what a good asset manager looks like? Read more here!
There are many different lables, so naturally there are many different printers. In this article we'll be focusing on the two most oftenly used printers.
Paper labels are widely used for digital office inventories. There are many printers who can print on paper, but not all of them are suitable to print labels. Let's look at an example: When you go shopping, your grocery bill is printed on paper. If you keep that bill for a while, the writing will probably start wearing off fairly quickly. This obviously shouldn't happen to labels on inventory - How good is a label if you can't scan it? Therefore, labels have to be printed using a different technique. Longevity is achieved by using a thermal transfer process.
A RFID-Tag consists of a memory chip that stores individual data. This information can be read by an RFID pistol any time from a distance. This makes RFID labels very practical during an inventory process, but it does make printing them a little trickier. The chip has to be placed very precicly to make the labels useable, which requires a lot of technical know-how by the user operating the printer. Because of the complicated printing process these printers are also very expensive, usually costing between 3000 - 5000 Euros.
What exactly are RFID tags? Learn more about it in our article!
Regardless of which labels a company decides to use, they still need to be acquired from somewhere. One possibility is to buy a label printer. This can turn out to be very expensive very quickly, because label printers are customized machinery. RFID label printers are even more expensive because the memory chip has to be inserted correctly into the label. Using a RFID label printer correctly requires the necessary technical know-how and eats up a lot of time.
Of course, owning a label printer also has its advantages. Companies with multiple locations or high inventory fluctuations could benefit from the freedom and flexibility an own printer can offer.
Regardless of which printer you need, it's definitely worth investing some time and thought into whether the cost-benefit ratio of owning one. How often are you going to use your printer after the initial inventory process? Is there someone in the company who knows how to use it? Maybe even multiple people, in case someone leaves? If the answer isn't an easy yes, these are additional problems you'd have to solve, in addition to simply purchasing a printer.
Find out here how a digital asset manager can make remote working much easier!
If you decide to purchase and use a label printer - more power to you! There are other ways to get labels though, if you don't want to take that step. You'll need the most labels for your initial inventory process, after that you'll probably only need a couple here or there. So buying labels from an outside company might be your best bet. Many companies offer a variety of labels and the possibilities to customize them, including your companies logo or specific technical information. This can save you valuable time and effort. There is no need to purchase a printer, no one has to learn how to use a specialized machine or spend time on label design. Someone else takes care of that for you!
In the grand scheme of things, one doesn't necessarily exclude the other: you could buy labels from a separate company for a speedy initial inventory process. That way you can take some time to see if owning your own label printer makes sense, for example if you notice that you're burning through labels at a quick pace. But for most companies, owning a label printer just isn't economically viable and by taking some time to assess how many labels you'd be printing after your initial inventory process. Chances are, your digital inventory software provider will be able to help you get the labels you need. Regardless of how you decide to get them, choosing and designing the labels that fit your companies need is an important and often exciting part of the inventory process!
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