Regarding yesterday's discussion of bar-coding labels, Rich J. brought
up the topic of what labels/tags Vista cannot print. I had the same
problem in Vantage 6.00.535.
We do a lot of STK-MFG Returns, because we issue a whole roll of
material to a job, and return the unused portion to stock. We also do
STK-STK Transfers. In both cases we need labels that accurately describe
the material and the final-state location and quantity.
I resolved the problem by creating a label-printing Excel workbook with
an embedded MSQuery that reads the PartTrans table. When a user
completes a label-worthy transaction, he just maximizes the workbook,
selects his latest transaction from the automatically refreshed
drop-down list and presses print. (The print area is set-up to suit a
2"x4" label on our Zebra printer.) The label includes text and bar-code
for the usual PartNum, BinNum, LotNum and Qty, but it also describes the
transaction that created it (e.g.: "Return from Job XXXXXX Seq YYYY on
mm/dd/yy by John Doe"). To work-around the negative quantity declaration
of reversed transactions, the labels print only the absolute value of
the quantity.
The beauty of this solution is that the one workbook will print labels
for all transaction types, and the transaction log that it presents is
viewable by all users (something Vantage did not allow). Also I now
don't need to maintain all the individual tag and label reports, or
resort to customization.
Regarding bar-code readers...
For Physical Inventories we use WorthData Tricoders to scan and
accumulate multi-record data files for uploading the Excel, where the
records are formatted to suit KeyText, which emulates a robotic keyboard
to type the records into Count Entry.
For reading single bar-codes directly into a Vantage screen we use a USB
Wasp laser scanner.
Steve Ashton
Database Specialist
Decoustics Limited
65 Disco Road
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M9W 1M2
T (416) 675-3983 x336
F (416) 679-8838
sashton@...