FormLink’s life safety inspection software supports barcodes

What is a barcode, and why did FormLink choose to add support for them when designing their latest fire safety and inspection asset form? A barcode is simply a machine-readable, visual pattern that codes information.  Think of the barcodes on everyday grocery items at your local grocery store.  Once an item with a barcode is run across the check-out scanner, the cashier is informed of the product name and corresponding price.  The same idea applies to a fire safety inspection and all the assets that must work together in order to create a safe and functional fire protection system in a building.  Each device in a fire protection system is uniquely barcoded, so a technician can quickly scan a barcode on their mobile device or physical Bluetooth scanner and immediately identify the asset.  The inspector can then complete the inspection, testing, and maintenance (ITM) of said asset. Barcodes can make inspecting fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems, alarms, eyewash stations, exit signs, emergency lights, control valves, range hoods, and more, quick and easy.  

FormLink customers are trusted with inspecting and maintaining large buildings, campuses, and hospitals throughout the country.  Fire protection systems in these large facilities have thousands of assets which require periodic inspection.  By barcoding each device, the technician can scan the barcode during an inspection and instantly locate the corresponding asset in the FormLink software.  From there, it’s just a matter of performing the necessary ITM tasks and quickly logging the results.  Combined with FormLink’s recently released custom reporting feature, it has never been easier to complete your inspections and generate your JCAHO, HFAP, or other inspection reports for your customers.

If the use of barcodes is deemed advantageous for a larger facility, FormLink is able to provide a variety of options in order to tailor the product to the customer.  For example, if a facility already has barcodes on some or all assets, FormLink is able to use the existing barcodes, thus saving time, manpower, and money.  Additionally, the barcodes can be accessed by either a keyboard scanner application on an already existing mobile device or through a physical Bluetooth scanner that acts like keyboard input.  Regardless of the customer-specific options that are chosen, barcodes increase inspector efficiency when capturing inspection results and can even prevent accidental duplication of devices on inspection forms. As barcoding in fire safety becomes more prevalent, users relay that they are able to instantly pull comprehensive reports on any and all assets and continually impress insurance company auditors and local fire departments alike.  All stakeholders can agree—a cleaner, neater inspection translates to a safer, more cost-effective facility. 

Using barcodes undeniably increases inspector efficiency during an inspection.  However, it doesn’t always make sense to put barcodes on devices in every facility.  For many types of inspections, there may not be enough devices in the building to warrant the upfront time, labor, and money involved in adding barcode labels to devices and configuring the information in FormLink.  Think back to the barcodes used at your grocery store.  It makes sense for a large wholesale club to have items cataloged and barcoded due to the sheer number of items that must be scanned each day.  However, at a small roadside market, it doesn’t make financial or timely sense to adhere barcodes to each item and catalog them accordingly.  Rather, it’s more likely that the roadside market has a limited number of items with a stickered price and are rung up respectively.   FormLink takes the different needs of varying facilities into consideration and has ensured that its software works with or without barcodes.  Other solutions on the market require barcodes regardless of the customer’s specific needs.  However, FormLink believes that while barcodes streamline a fire inspection safety system in larger facilities, they can be more cumbersome, time-consuming, and ultimately unnecessary in smaller facilities.  FormLink sets itself apart from its competitors by allowing the customer to tailor the product to their own needs.  In a smaller facility, FormLink’s software works just as smoothly without the use of barcodes on all fire protection assets.  Additionally, if you would like to add barcodes at a later date, FormLink leaves the door open to add them later as the customer’s needs and desires grow or change over time.  You decide when and how FormLink’s barcodes, software, and reports work for you by reviewing the wide range of options available and assessing your own immediate needs.  Whether your facility identifies closer to a wholesale grocery club or a roadside market, FormLink keeps your needs in mind and makes it easy if you choose to leverage the power of barcodes in your inspection processes.