Supply Chains are the lifeblood of our economy. From how a shellfish gets from the tideline to the table, to how a semi-conductor chip gets from a factory in Asia to a printer on a farm.
As many of you know, We have been dealing with printer issues for the last few months. Turns out we have the same issue as the Ford F-150 factories. A shortage of inexpensive semiconductor chips is holding us up. Fortunately we haven't had to stop production, we just had to switch printers.
For our tagging and distributor clients, we will be shipping new Zebra Printers instead of the TSC printers we have been doing so far. The TSC printers are great, but we we just can't get any. The Zebra printers are just as good so and seem to have a better supply. We are now certified resellers of both TSC and Zebra printers, giving us resiliency in this time of supply chain disruptions. As always, they come with a 2 year warranty.
As part of the switch, our line up of printers now includes:
1) Mobile printers: Ideal for printing less than 150 tags per day especially in remote locations. TSC Alpha 3r and Zebra 521Q. The benefits of the mobile is they run on batteries for 2 days and are pretty durable (certified for 5' drops). The drawback is the paper is thinner than other tags.
2) Industrial Printers: Ideal for printing more than 150 tags per day The Zebra ZT411. The industrial holds ~760 to 950 tags per roll and prints on a thicker paper.
Both printers work directly from the phone via Bluetooth--no need for cables. Both use thermal printing so there is no smudging or ink to worry about. You can easily switch between the two printer types: for instance if you want to print some tags on the boat and others back in the plant.
