Oil packer's ink-jets add bar codes (sidebar)

How important were bar codes on shipping cases to Amalie Oil? When it began to check out the Series 7 high-resolution ink-jet printer for corrugated boxes, the company literally invested in several hand-held scanners so it could double-check the scannability or read rate of those bar codes. Too often, says Chip Clarke, assistant plant manager, the user simply buys a good scanner that, in fact, will verify the code most of the time. "But since our customers might be using less-sophisticated scanners, our read rate in their warehouse could be considerably lower than what we experience here," he says. "So we went to some lengths and costs to make sure that our codes would scan well, regardless of what type of scanner a customer might be using." Since installation, the plant does random checks of bar-code scannability. For the long term, it plans to install an omnidirectional scanner to read the codes. It already uses one to check the bar codes on bottle labels. This is in response to those customers that impose stiff penalties on companies that supply containers that don't scan well. While Wal-Mart is best known for its charges for non-scans, Clarke says other chains do it, too. Some day, he says, Amalie may be a supplier to Wal-Mart, although he laments that its current business volume has kept the company from being aggressive in looking for new business. Once the current expansion is completed, however, "we expect that situation to change," he says with confidence.