Case Study - Mat på Jobbet™ Svenska AB

The company Mat på Jobbet™ Svenska AB is a Swedish company that was founded in 1995 and today has approximately 30 employees. The company’s customers are located in the larger Stockholm area, Uppsala, Helsingborg, Landskrona, Lund and Malmö, and they are looking to expand into new markets as well.

What it is Mat på Jobbet™ installs self-service units in the lunchroom of businesses and provides each employee with their own charge card to be used for buying lunch or a snack as well as beverages without having to leave the workplace. This little ‘convenience store’ is comprised of refrigerator/ freezers filled with food and drink items, microwave ovens, charge card terminals/ receipt printers and a bar code reader. Maintenance, replenishing the food and beverages and cleaning the units is all taken care of continually by Mat på Jobbet™.

Mat på Jobbet™ adapts the product selection to the wishes of the employees. A suggestion box is provided where the employees can make their desires known and this box is emptied every time Mat på Jobbet™ services the convenience store. All of the food and beverage items are well-known brands and come from well-known suppliers.

The main warehouse of Mat på Jobbet™ is located in Stockholm, and the items are transported to the customer companies in refrigerated vehicles in an unbroken chain of temperature control. Mat på Jobbet™ has a taste guarantee, which means that if a product is not to the employee's satisfaction, then their account will be credited the amount of the item. In addition, Mat på Jobbet™ removes items from the refrigerator whose “best before” dates have expired.

How it Works
Employees run their personal charge card through the terminal provided to access the refrigerator/freezer and remove products for consumption. These items must be registered with the help of a bar code reader by simply scanning the bar codes on the products. The purchase is then registered to that employee. Every month the customer company is sent a statement showing every employee’s purchases, and the right amount is deducted from their salary. If the customer company wishes, Mat på Jobbet™ can deduct the amount directly from the employees' salary
accounts (a direct debit).

The Heron™ Bar Code Reader
Datalogic’s business partner, DataFångst Svenska AB, supplied Mat på Jobbet™ with the Heron™ bar code readers for this application. DataFångst Svenska is a fast growing Swedish company in the Automatic Identification (AutoID) sector that helps customers in the industrial and retail industries to streamline their organizations by means of lower stock levels, better flow of materials, increased data security and more.

Previously, bar code readers from other manufacturers were used by Mat på Jobbet™ for this application. But since certain codes are difficult to read, such as codes on soda cans that reflect light, a reader with special features was needed. They decided on the Heron™ from Datalogic, which is able to read the difficult codes and is also ergonomically designed and has the green spot, which visibly shows when a code has been read successfully.

The replacement of all the readers in use began in the beginning of 2005. The Heron™ bar code reader is connected via a RS232 cable to the charge card terminal/ receipt printer. Every night the card terminal communicates through GSM with Mat på Jobbet’s™ self-developed business system and updates all the employees' balances.

“Our customers are not used to using bar code readers. It is, therefore, important that the reader must be easy to use and show clearly that the code has been read. The Heron is just that kind of reader,” states Jonas Enqvist, operations manager, who is very pleased with the new readers.

Datalogic Scanning again leads the Worldwide AIDC Industry in Bar Code Scanning

According to the latest report from marketing research firm Venture Development Corporation (VDC), Datalogic Scanning again leads the global AIDC Industry, with both its stationary and its handheld scanner product lines. Datalogic Scanning has been ranked #1 in worldwide point-of-sale (POS) stationary barcode scanner shipments and #1 in the EMEA region for handheld readers for the last several years.

Innovation, Professionalism and Passion. With over 30 years of knowledge, experience and expertise within the automatic identification and data capture industry, Datalogic Scanning offers the most innovative portfolio of in-counter and on-counter POS barcode scanners and products for retail applications, as well as the broadest range of handheld bar code readers available today.

The world’s top ten retailers use the Magellan® line of high-performance retail POS scanners and scanner/scales, which enhance checkout productivity in medium-to-high volume retail environments.

In fact, customers who use the Magellan brand report: “we know that when we install a Magellan scanner, we can forget about it! This VDC report confirms that the future is bright for the AIDC barcode industry and that execution of our strategic plan has been effective in bolstering our global leadership position in industry,” remarked Bill Parnell, President and CEO.

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Over 35,000 customers worldwide have chosen Datalogic Scanning handheld readers during the past 10 years which translates into an exceptional >30% market presence in the EMEA Region. PowerScan®, Gryphon™, Heron™, QuickScan®, and Touch™ scanners have all established the rules of the game in the very competitive hand held scanner arena, offering the broadest choices of technology and connectivity features.

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Datalogic Scanning in numbers: Datalogic Scanning made history with the first retail bar code scan in 1974.