Smooth Sailing
At Lund Boats in Steinbach, Manitoba, photo ID is used as a security measure, as well as for time and attendance. Lund Boats has 240 people in its plant, where 12- to 18-foot aluminum recreational boats are made. It’s one of 18 companies owned by Genmar Holdings, builders of brand-name boats,including Carver, Crestliner, Wellcraft, Glastron, Champion and Four Winns.
The plant is secured with fencing and there is one main security gate, where employees must show their photo ID before driving in. Previous to purchasing the photo ID system, Lund used employee cards with just a name and employee number. However, if a card was lost, another person could easily use it. Now, once employees arrive at their stations, they have to swipe their photo ID cards through a barcode reader to record the beginning of their shifts.
Says Steve Rooke, Lund’s information systems and facility manager: “We’re currently using the system for time and attendance, but we will be expanding it for shop floor data collection as well.”
The plan is to install barcode readers at each assembly station. Once work is finished on each boat, an employee will swipe his or her card to record the amount of time spent on each work order.
Lund uses a custom written time-and-attendance program that was developed at the plant, Rooke explains. “The ID system uses a FARGO PVC card printer, EPI Suite card design and management software and a digital camera. And for visitor tags, we use plastic cards that are printed on an in-house printer.”
Sense of Belonging
At Wallace & Carey – a distributor serving 2,500 retail sites across Canada – the ID system works a little differently. Transporting tobacco, sundry items, confectionery, grocery, health and beauty and other products to its customers, Wallace & Carey has its head office and a distribution centre in Calgary, with other regional distribution centres in Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Oakville, Ontario. About 485 people work for the company across Canada.
All employees must wear photo ID at all times to ensure everyone knows who belongs and who doesn’t. Each distribution centre has a digital camera to take employee pictures, which are sent by e-mail to the Calgary office with a person’s information. An employee card is made, then sent via inter-office courier the next day.
The system uses the same equipment as Lund Boats at each of its locations. For visitors, Wallace & Carey uses the same system to produce numbered PVC cards. A spreadsheet is used to record other pertinent information such as the visitor’s name, time in and time out, as well as the person or department they are visiting.
“If there was a fire,” explains Jacqueline Bellerose, Wallace & Carey’s manager of communications and employee services, “we have to know who is in the building at all times."
Currently,the company doesn’t integrate its card with door access or swipe systems, but Bellerose adds “that’s something we’ll be looking at in the future.”
Ready for More
For higher-volume visitor applications – including the several large parties and golf tournaments Wallace & Carey hosts for up to a few hundred people at a time each year – the company uses the Easylobby visitor badging and management system.
The system uses a printer that produces self-adhesive badges. With the accompanying software, the badges can be customized to include the company logo, a person’s photograph, the name and company of the visitor, as well as other information.
Visitor data is stored and can be retrieved using standard or custom report templates. The system also comes with a small scanner that will scan a business card, read the information on it using optical character recognition (OCR) and drop the information onto the computer screen. Other details can then be entered and a badge printed.
Previous to purchasing this system, Wallace & Carey used its computer to print badges ahead of time, notes Bellerose. “It used to take us a long time to print all the badges, put them in plastic covers and alphabetize them. Then you needed a place to put them. It’s cumbersome to thumb through badges to try and find a person’s name.”
Now names are input beforehand and name badges are printed only once a person arrives. The company can tell who is at an event because his or her arrival time is recorded. And if a badge has been misspelled, it can be corrected and reprinted in seconds.
Wallace & Carey also uses its ID system card printer at its golf tournaments. A scored card (see photo below), that can be printed, then split in two to produce two nametags (which is a more cost effective way to produce these informal identifiers), is used. Golfbag tags with a picture of the golf course, the company logo, the logo of its favourite charity (Kid’s Help Phone), and the participant’s name and company name are also produced using this system.
Self Assesments
With such a multitude of uses, it’s important to consider how you might use photo ID for other needs before you purchase a system. For example, if you’re using barcodes, ID software can generate them. And if you’re using magnetic coding for door access or time and attendance, a PVC card printer can encode the cards.
Another consideration: If you use proximity cards, your ID printer can print on cards with an even surface. If the surface is irregular, however, a thin adhesive PVC card can be purchased for printing and affixing to the card.
Finally, depending on your needs, you may want to consider a visitor management system. It can be used for a wide range of security and non-security applications.
Photo ID has many purposes beyond those related to security alone. Considering all the possibilities before you purchase a system can ensure you get exactly what you need and none of what you don’t, and it can help facilitate management buy-in if you can show multiple uses and returns on investment. |
