Before a customer engages, during a construction or installation project and over the lifecycle of the asset, barcode scanning is the contractor’s friend.
HVACR contractors face special challenges because they do not operate with just a single business model. Construction and installation of mechanicals may represent part of the revenue stream. Other revenue may come from annual maintenance contracts or break-fix repair calls on demand.
Successful execution against these different business approaches depends on access to accurate, real-time data about inventory and assets. Here are three compelling reasons barcode scanning is essential for HVACR contractors.
1. Accurate scheduling depends on accurate data
Whether scheduling a multi-day construction project or a 45-minute service call, precise knowledge of tools, equipment, and materials is crucial. Without this information, contractors risk wasting time and money. Barcode scanning offers a digital system that captures asset moves, assignments, locations, reservations, maintenance, and other transactions with a single scan.
A comprehensive application like PanatrackerST can:
- Determine the availability of required tools, materials, parts, or assemblies in stock.
- Track inventory across multiple locations and check if it’s reserved for other projects or customers.
- Manage the movement of materials within a site as work progresses, ensuring efficient use and reducing delays.
Relying on outdated methods like cycle counts or tribal knowledge can lead to missed commitments and inefficiencies. Barcode scanning ensures up-to-date, accurate data that supports effective scheduling and project management.
2. Shop-based fabrication combined with field work
HVACR contractors often deal with both OEM-provided equipment and custom-fabricated items. Managing these inventories poses unique challenges. Barcode scanning solutions can represent nested assemblies of combined inventory items, providing full visibility of component parts, including serialization where necessary.
In cases where pre-made assemblies need to be disassembled for component use, PanatrackerST offers reliable visibility into these components, preventing unnecessary purchases of parts already in stock. This visibility ensures that contractors make the most of their inventory, avoiding waste and reducing costs.
3. Maintenance management
Aftermarket service is a highly profitable element of HVACR contracting. Efficient maintenance management requires accurate documentation of on-site work, capturing inspection insights, and recording parts or consumables used. Most serviceable equipment has serialized barcodes, enabling:
- Documentation of work performed on each unit, creating a reliable asset record.
- Efficient addition of data on replaced parts and components to asset records.
- Real-time visibility of inventory transactions, ensuring up-to-date records and reducing stock discrepancies.
Barcode scanning streamlines maintenance management, enhancing service quality and profitability.
An Optimal Solution
Panatrack delivers on these and other contractor requirements with minimal disruption to the rest of the business.
A new and modern software-as-a-service (SaaS) product informed by Panatrack’s 20-plus years in inventory and asset tracking software, PanatrackerST frees contractors of the constrains they will face in traditional inventory or asset software built around business models that operate within four walls. Mobile inventory, project inventory, mixing of ownership/custody, or the hierarchical nesting of locations like a container in a truck—Panatrack handles it all.
Conversely, Panatrack was designed to track the aspects of who, what, and where. It allows for flexible identification and control of your business’s inventory and assets.
We kept in mind the need to easily complete transactions from multiple devices — desktops, tablets, mobile devices, and phones. Barcode data capture provides the efficiency to accurately perform transactions.
If you are looking to better manage tools, equipment, assets, project-based inventory, or supplies, Panatrack is the right tracking solution for you.
