Overhead view of warehouse operations

Notes from the warehouse floor

Practical guides for warehouse and inventory teams, plus the occasional note on what we are building.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Browse by topic

Accuracy Barcoding Operations Automation Choosing a system

Close-up of a barcode scan in progress

The Fascinating History of Barcode Scanners

Nearly every warehouse in the country runs on barcodes, and almost nobody knows where they came from. A graduate student who overheard the wrong conversation, a man drawing lines in beach sand, and twenty-five years of the idea going nowhere.

Barcoding · August 6, 2026

Operator working at industrial equipment

Best Barcode Label Printers Compared: Thermal vs Inkjet

If you sell, store, or ship physical products, sooner or later you have to barcode them. Maybe a retailer is asking for scannable labels, maybe your…

Finance lead reviewing data on a laptop

Digitization vs. Digitalization: Why the Difference Matters

Digitization converts something analog into digital form. Digitalization changes how the work runs once it's digital. Confusing the two is how automation projects end up as expensive filing cabinets.

Aerial view of an outbound dock, a forklift loading pallets into a trailer

4 Techniques for Multi-Warehouse Inventory Management

A second warehouse changes how you track, route, and replenish stock. Four techniques for keeping counts honest and orders moving once inventory lives in more than one building.

Choosing a system

Warehouse team reviewing results on a tablet

5 Strategies for Building Supply Chain Resilience

You can't forecast the next disruption, but you can build a supply chain that absorbs one. Five strategies covering flexibility, supplier depth, geography, buffer stock, and keeping your own team informed.

Overhead view of warehouse operations

Food and Beverage Inventory Management: What Makes It Different

In food and beverage, a quantity on hand isn't enough to act on. What matters is which lot it is, how much shelf life is left on it, and where it's allowed to sit.

Long warehouse aisle with high racking

What Makes a Cold Storage Warehouse Hard to Run

In a freezer warehouse the cold is the operating constraint, not the product. What that changes about scanners, batteries, dock design, break scheduling, and the temperature records you have to be able to produce.

Operator checking counts against a clipboard

Cycle Count vs Physical Count: The Real Difference

A physical inventory count tells you what's on the shelf on one day. A cycle count tells you why the number drifted. Most operations need both, for different reasons.

Operations, Finance

A handheld scanner reading a barcode on a wrapped pallet

Barcode Basics: How Barcodes Work and How to Choose a Scanner

What a barcode actually is, where it earns its keep in a warehouse, and the four things worth checking before you buy scanners: durability rating, temperature range, form factor, and symbology support.

Operations, Floor teams

Worker at a shipping dock printing labels

How to Choose Label Printing Software: What to Ask Before You Buy

Label printing software isn't one category. What decides whether it works is where the data comes from, where the label prints, and whether the barcode still scans when it reaches the customer.

Packages moving down a warehouse conveyor line

Mispicks: Why They Happen and How Barcode Picking Stops Them

A mispick isn't one mistake. Paper picking has four decision points and no verification step, and the expensive part is everything that happens after the box leaves the dock.

Warehouse aisle with bay and bin location labels on the racking

The Move to 2D Barcode Labels

The UPC isn't going away, but a second code is showing up next to it. What GS1's Sunrise 2027 milestone asks of retail scanning, where 2D codes already run in warehouses, and what it means for the scanners you own.

Warehouse operator in a high-visibility vest holding a rugged handheld computer

Mobile Computer vs Smartphone: What's Actually Different

A phone with a scanning app and a rugged handheld will both read a barcode. The differences that decide a warehouse deployment are the scan engine, the battery, the housing, and how the device gets managed.

Two workers counting stock in a racking aisle, one scanning and one checking a tablet

What a Physical Inventory Count Is Actually For

A full count exists to serve valuation, insurance, and planning, not to prove the warehouse is tidy. Why counts come back wrong, and why cycle counting carries more of the load than the annual shutdown does.

Operations, Finance

Subscribe to the Endpoint Blog

Stay connected with Endpoint and receive new blog posts in your inbox.

Subscribed. Thanks, new posts will land in your inbox.

Something went wrong. Please try again, or email hello@endpointas.com.