Many large businesses have separate departments for tracking and monitoring inventory. Smaller companies devote a lot of time to the process. The main reason why so much importance is attributed to inventory tracking is that it saves money and time. A vast sum of money is spent by businesses on inventory with most of them wanting to know the amount of inventory there is at any given time. Most people in IT businesses do not find value in tracking inventory because it is simply not on their radar. However, for managers of field service and fuel delivery teams, it is vital to track inventory. It helps management dispatch the right truck/van with the right inventory so the job gets done the first time, saving much in fuel and payroll costs and improving customer service, which of course improves margins.Real-time fleet inventory tracking helps you automatically order products for resale so that you do not exhaust your stock. This method is also integrated with the dispatching and routing system so that customers receive exceptional customer service. Inventory is required by businesses in some form or the other. Due to the ever-increasing cost of inventory, it is not cost effective to have a warehouse of parts and pieces and this is where this new technology comes in. It now tracks what inventory you have on hand, what has been used for each job, and communicates this automatically so you reorder only what you need. This, of course, cuts down on all forms of inventory “shrink”. Since it works in real-time, it also helps managers find any discrepancies faster, cutting down on inventory reconciliation time. Fuel delivery, HVAC, and field service companies have sizable investments tied up in their inventory. This solution helps reduce inventory loss and management time.By tracking inventory, you can monitor where it belongs in the supply chain. Through this process, companies can receive data on the amount of inventory that is owned, where the inventories are located, their status (rejected, returned, damaged or on hold) and deter loss and theft. Through appropriate management, businesses can determine the inventory that is to be used, sold, moved, purchased or destroyed.In order to improve inventory management, many companies are moving to a few new scanning systems. Barcode scanning, newer QR code scanning, near field communication (NFC) and through RFID or Radio frequency identification. This technology is available in two ways – active and passive RFID. Active RFID is suitable for environments with security issues or that need real-time tracking details. Passive RFID is best when employed with hand-held scanners without the security issues. All are cost effective and getting easier to employ.

The ultimate secret of racing is: FIELD SIZE. Handicapping must be seen statistically to grasp what it appears like over 3-10 years. To know what the money side of racing is (profitcapping) it must be seen in the same light or statistically. In both major cases it’s about statistics and it’s done in a specific way. That way is the most powerful of ways in racing for handicapping and profitcapping. The number of horses on the track is the tell-tail sign of almost everything in racing. It doesn’t tell everything of course because nothing is capable of doing that.If you’ve been playing horses for three or more years and you took a statistical sampling of all the races you played and divided them by field size you would see something utterly amazing. In the handicapping part you would see how and why you win and lose. In the profitcapping area you would see how and why you made money or lost it. You would see your own specific style of handicapping’s winning and losing streaks. You would see the races that you played and why those races didn’t pay and why you should have passed them.Why? Because there are rules of pass or play for each and both major parts of racing. There are a specific number of horses in each race on every race track no matter what the weather, track surface is and so on. Each field size has specific limits to how much it pays.This makes it a constant to be heavily studied. The percent of win, place, show, fourth and fifth are different for every field size. The public via the tote board gets the win position horse 33% of the time with all sizes mixed into one. Statistics and field size gives the player the most formidable position and insight there is in racing for both handicapping and profitcapping.Most players will never figure this out but they intuit this subliminally. A basic rule of racing is: there are patterns to winning and/or losing in racing. Once again: one of the ultimate secrets of racing is: FIELD SIZE. Over looked, down played and kept on the back burner (so to speak) as a triviality. In order to use this simple information rightly and it must be used rightly then the player must use very basic statistics in each in-the-money position and wager type(s) that’s personally chosen to be played.A basic law of racing is: profitcapping and handicapping are based on field size. The fewer horses on the track in a race the easier it is for each horse and the more horses on the track in the race the harder it is for each horse. Hence: the ultimate secret of racing is: FIELD SIZE.

Let there be no doubt about who was the star in the Track & Field venue at the 2009 Washington State Senior Games. Henry James literally knocked the socks off of his 50-54 age-group competition in the 400 and 800-meter runs, clocking 55.17 for the 400, and 2:03.55 in the 800.James electrified onlookers with his performance, smashing Bob Prather’s 2:11.11 mark in the 800 to set a new Senior Games record. Last year James set the record in the 400 with a 54.83 clocking.James, who lives in Bellingham, is a late bloomer. He apparently was middle distance runner who attracted little attention while running for Everett High School. He graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Computer Science and Business Administration, but did not compete in college.He began running again in 2001, thinking he would try a marathon, and joined a training group where he met and made some friends. One of his friends pointed out to him that he had some foot speed. He stopped training for a few years and then started again last year. This year was his second effort in seniors’ competition.James said he knew he was rounding into shape at the right time as he ran the 800 in 2:16 three weeks ago, followed that up with a 2:07 a week ago and then unleashed his 2:03.55 record-setter at this year’s Games in Tumwater (WA).In chatting with Henry James after his performance, he was effusive about the camaraderie he has experienced being around older runners who just cannot give up the sport they love.Charles Brocato (65-69 age group) of Gig Harbor had a great day as he went triple gold, turning in some great times while winning the 50 (7.62), 100 (13.68) and 200 (29.14).Among the men, the other best times of the day were recorded by David Ortman (50-54) of Seattle in the 50 (6.74), Steve Worley (55-59) of Salem (OR) in the 100 (13.27), Steve Joyner (55-59) of Bremerton in the 200 (27.06), and Ray Prentice (50-54) of Normandy Park in the 1,500 (4:39.64).Among the women, best times of the day were recorded by Lynne Clewell (65-69) of Seattle in the 50 (8.75) and 100 (17.07), Shannon Houlihan (50-54) of Olympia in the 200 (36.79), and Susan Hasselgrave (50-54) of Vashon in the 400 (1.29.44), 800 (3:21.39) and 1,500 (7:41.6). Both Clewell and Hasselgrave went triple gold as Clewell also won the 200 in her age-group.Joyce Trader (70-74) of Seattle also went triple-gold, winning the 50, 100 and 200.Best times in the 5,000 (5K) were recorded by Rand Iversen (60-64) of Elma (20:00-6:27 per mile) and Jacqueline Jordan (55-59) of Bellevue (24:03-7.45), and in the 10,000 (10K) by Russ Otani (50-54) of Lynnwood (39:56-6:26) and Karen Schoessel (55-59) of Olympia (46:46-7:33). Jordan also was triple gold after winning the 400 and 800 in her age-group.Among the men jumpers, best leaps of the day were recorded by Steve Worley (55-59) of Salem (OR) in the Long Jump (16-04), Richard Neidhardt of Olympia (50-54) in the Triple Jump (30-04.25), Dan Cole (60-64) of Olympia in the High Jump (4-11.75), and Louis Baucom of La Center and William Shugart of Seattle (both 50-54) in the Pole Vault (13-0).Among the women throwers, best efforts of the day included Jennifer Hogan (50-54) of Tacoma in the Discus (65-0), Hogan again in the Javelin (63-02), and Hogan again in the Shot Put (25-10.50)-and yes, Hogan went triple gold, and Susan Hinz (60-64) of Pullman in the Weight Throw (33-07).Fran Melzer (70-74) had two outstanding throws of 60-05 (60-feet-5-inches) in the Discus and 32-11 in the women’s Weight Throw; she won both events in her age-group. Melzer is an Olympia-area track supporter, participator and organizer of the first order. She is also a member of the Diehards Track & Field Club, which is primarily made up of jumpers and throwers but will also accept runners.Debbie Dohrmann (55-59) of Olympia picked up 5 gold medals in the Discus, Javelin, Shot Put, Weight Throw and Superweight Throw. Dohrmann was the iron-woman of the day, having been runner-up in the 50 and 100. She is also a member of the Diehards Club.Among the men throwers, best efforts included absolutely outstanding throws by Peter LaBarge (70-74) of Dallas (TX) in the Discus (134-01), and by Robert Ward (70-74) of Portland (OR) in the Shot Put (46-11)-notice their age, Gary Stenlund (65-69) of Battle Ground in the Javelin (151-0), George Matthews (65-69) of Hayden Lake (ID) in the Weight Throw (60-11.75), and another absolutely outstanding throw by Harvey Lewellen (80-84) of Springfield (OR) in the Superweight Throw (32-01.25).If you think seniors are an easy mark, I would not suggest trying to beat up aging Harvey Lewellen; he just might throw his attacker several feet though the air, and then slap them silly for even thinking about attacking him.Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley