Print Solutions Magazine, July 2002 -- Adding Value

When Doug Lewis started his distributorship in 1984, he knew that to succeed, he had to distinguish his company from other firms. "If I walked into a prospect and said I was from Doug Lewis Label Company, they'd tell me they already had a label vendor," Lewis says.

He saw bar code technology--at the time, an industry buzzword--as his ticket to success. "If I told prospects, 'I'm from Bar Code Label Company,' I knew they'd ask, 'What's a bar code? How does it work? Come show us,'" says Lewis, who named his Mountain Lakes, N.J., distributorship Bar Code Label Systems Inc.

Bar Code Label Systems offers thermal transfer and thermal direct bar code label printers; bar code scanners; printer supplies such as labels and ribbons; and bar code software, including label printing software, inventory software and tracking software. Most orders are shipped within 48 hours.

Offering Much More than Products

Lewis, who attended engineering school at New York University, prides himself on his mechanical abilities. He's a certified service and repair technician for printers manufactured by Toshiba TEC Corp., and has completed repair training courses from other label printer manufacturers, including SATO America Inc. and Datamax Corp. As a result, Bar Code Label Systems also provides printer repair services in house. Often, he can diagnose and solve printer problems over the phone. If a problem can't be resolved that way, Bar Code Label Systems services the printer at its facility while providing the customer with an identical printer that works.

Bar Code Label Systems also provides bar code label system consulting and training services. "We can help a client select the best printer for the application, show them how to set up their shop and train them how to use the software," Lewis says.

Fixing a Processing Problem

When women's clothing

manufacturer Alfred Dunner experienced problems printing compliance shipping labels for shipments to various department stores, it turned to Bar Code Label Systems for assistance. The shipping labels, which were affixed to each box of clothing, included Alfred Dunner's address, consolidation point addresses, final destination addresses, purchase order numbers and bar codes. When recipients scanned the bar codes, they captured information about the boxes' contents, including type, number, colors and sizes of garments inside.

Alfred Dunner experienced problems after purchasing a bar code label printer before amply researching its needs. Because the printer didn't include a dual processor, it paused for several seconds between printing labels for one store (such as Macy's) and switching to a new label format to print labels for another store (such as J.C. Penney). "It was causing a bottleneck in their distribution process because it was the wrong printer," Lewis says.

Bar Code Label Systems provided Alfred Dunner with nine dual-processor bar code label printers manufactured by Toshiba TEC Corp. The distributorship trained Alfred Dunner supervisors to use the printers and advised them on preventing label jams and other common problems. Bar Code Label Systems provides the client with labels, ribbons, and printer maintenance and repair services. If one of the nine printers breaks and can't be repaired, the distributorship provides its client with a replacement printer. Bar Code Label Systems is working with Alfred Dunner to implement a radio-frequency bar code system in the client's warehouse that will provide real-time inventory and order information.

—Kara S. Carpenter

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