“Drivers, start your engines! ONE…. TWO… THREE… and they’re off!” As the sound of hundreds of tires screeching on the hot pavement fills the track, pit crews are eagerly scrambling to their respective positions. Imagine, hundreds of pit crew workers all over the place, vying for their spot amongst the excitement. How on Earth does someone keep track of all those people? As race teams are eliminated during the race, some crew members are free to help different teams, particularly if those teams are short of personnel or have members unexpectedly drop out. This opportunity for crew workers to be hired on the spot makes the nature of the job extremely fluid and the racing organization needs a fast, reliable means of keeping track of their employees. With races that are “on the move” (pun intended!) to different locations from week to week and the fact that local people may sometimes be hired for the pit crews, accountability becomes an even larger issue. So, you may be thinking to yourself—how does EIM come into play? Badge labels for tracking their pit crew. 
The racing organization needed durable labels for their employee badges so we recommended our tamper-evident, destructible labels. They also wanted to integrate color-coded badge labels to better track the different situations and pit crews at a given race. No problem! EIM added racing stripes (actually color bars) to the top of their labels in a variety of bright colors.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t too long before they discovered that the fuels and solutions used in their work were making our labels fade during a race. Come to find out, they weren’t using our recommended printing ribbons and they really needed a more durable ribbon formula. We sent them samples immediately and their problem was solved in time for the next race!
Next, they needed to tackle the task of keeping better track of their crew members. The numbering system for their employees just wasn’t working. The barcode numbers they assigned to each crew member consisted of a crew number, a race number and a team number. Many numbers had to be created at the last minute as crew members moved from team to team making it impossible to pre-make labels before each race. We helped them rethink their process and they came to realize that utilizing a database was in the company’s best interest. Since they didn’t have one in place, they had very little understanding of how they function, however. EIM worked with their IT people to get a spreadsheet set up with multiple columns that merge into one long number for each crew member. Now they can print on the fly and pit crew trackers who are sent to every race to ensure everything is kept on the “up and up” use barcode scanners to collect the data from our labels and send it on to their computers.
These are just some of the ways EIM helps customers through entire labeling projects. We know how to deal with obstacles and come out “in front” with unique, customized labeling solutions. Get in touch with The Label Experts today—we’ll go the EXTRA MILE for you!!
