The Challenge

Auto Safety House needed a better way to run their physical inventory. Without barcodes, physical inventory can be a cumbersome and resourceintensive process. With multiple touches to each part number, coupled with the fact that entries have to be manually keyed in, the margin for error is high. “Last year, we had our administrative staff actually do the math to add the different locations together as they input the data. We ended up with mistakes,” says Larry Gibson, Owner and CFO of Auto Safety House. Rob Latshaw, Parts General Manager, adds, “There is a lot of appeal in utilizing barcodes. It expedites the check-in process in receiving, it adds more organization in the shelves, cycle counts get completed quicker, and it makes trackability of parts easier. Everything happens real-time when you’re barcoding – it’s a lot quicker and cleaner process.” While the allure
of utilizing barcodes for physical inventory is high, so is the cost. Purchasing enough barcode scanners to complete physical inventory can be very expensive.

The Solution

While most companies only need a barcode scanner or two for each location throughout the year to handle receiving and cycle counts, completing physical inventory via barcode requires more than that. To allow customers to complete physical inventory with the ease of barcodes without having to purchase multiple scanners, Karmak initiated a barcode scanner rental system. Auto Safety House was instrumental to this undertaking and were very helpful in piloting this program. “The scanner rental was very easy. We received the units from Karmak, charged them up, used
them, and returned them. It was seamless on our end,” states Latshaw.

The Results

With a positive variance of less than 0.3%, Auto Safety House was able to reduce their margin of error substantially. “We were absolutely more accurate with this method than we were in years past. Every time you can cut down on the number of times somebody else has to touch the item you have a better chance at being accurate,” says Gibson. Using the barcode scanners rented from Karmak, Auto Safety House not only experienced an increase in accuracy, but also a reduction in cost. Gibson states, “From the accounting perspective, utilizing barcodes, especially with our physical inventory process, allows us to save a significant amount of expense just in the time-reduction and the reduction in the number of people we need to use.”