Sick of looong serial numbers or dragging extra scanning equipment? Good news!

How fun is it to read and manually punch in an endless serial number every time you want to get or add information about a piece of equipment! Super fun, right?! No? Well, luckily, there are much better ways – and you don’t even need any special equipment for it. 

If you own, use, or inspect equipment that has requirements for safe use, inspection, and documentation, there’s a good chance that you regularly need to get or add info about that equipment. 

You might be used to manually entering serial numbers, or you might have a barcode scanner or an RFID scanner. But it can be done extremely fast and easy, using only your smartphone. There are two methods for smartphone scanning you should definitely consider:

• QR codes
  A QR code (Quick Response code) is a type of barcode but with a much greater potential for storing information, ensuring a completely unique code. The QR code can be scanned directly with your smartphone camera and lead you straight to, for example, a web page or application page with the equipment’s info and documentation.
  
  You can print your own QR codes or buy them premade, and then simply attach the code to the equipment and connect the code and the desired destination. 
  
  
• NFC tags
  For equipment exposed to heavy wear and tear, a patch with a QR code might be impractical. If so, an NFC (Near Field Communication) tag might be a great and durable alternative. NFC is a type of wireless radio communication commonly used with mobile payment solutions, and most smartphones have built-in NFC readers. 
  
  As with the QR code, scanning an NFC tag can bring you straight to a web page or an application page with the equipment’s info and documentation. While you can program your own NFC tags, it does take some work. It will be easier to buy tags from a software provider that offers pre-programmed tags directing you to the appropriate web page or application page. 

Read more about NFC tags here.

Combining one or both of these technologies with an application that supports them can save you a lot of time. Whenever you want to look at the user manual, check the next inspection due date, register or solve an issue, perform an inspection, or whatever else you might want to check or add: Just scan the code or tag with your smartphone, and you immediately have everything you need for that exact piece of equipment readily available in the app. 

Easy peasy, fast, and breezy – and without spending money on extra scanning devices!