We just finished all our encoding. We still need to do some spot audits, but the work is done for phase one. Five days of 4am. Averaged about 1000 encodes a day. The hardlines soft goods, textiles and boys/girls basics were our heaviest depts.
Protips:
1. I used a 30" Softlines shelf as a cart tray and pulled my EPC barcode tags across it, covering up the last few tags with a piece of paper, and uncovering only the tag I intended to encode. This simple trick ensured I was scanning the right tag everytime, since the RFID scanner wasn't accurate and would unintentionally scan a nearby tag regardless of how well I aimed. When encoding you can usually tell if you scanned the right tag by matching the last 2 or 3 digits on the EPC line on the MyDevice to the EPC tag you intended to scan. After a couple hundred tickets, this will become second nature.
2. After scanning the EPC tag, hold the front of the RFID scanner close to the tag (I'd just touch the front of it to the tag while encoding). The idea here is; when you scan the tag it tells the antenna in the gun to activate the antenna in the tag associated with that barcode number, then sends the information that will be encoded on that tag. The closer the gun's antenna is to the tag, the less distance the information needs to travel. And therefore faster encoding. Sounds stupid, but it worked surprisingly well.
3. If you get an UPC invalid error, when encoding using O'Neil printed monarch tickets, try scanning that item's shelf label. I don't know why the monarch ticket barcode is different, but after printing and scanning a shelf label and scanning that, I had success. If that fails, it will need to MySupported.
4. Watch those exception lists. Some of those tags were well hidden behind labels. Especially specialty bedding, FrootoftheLoom basics and Denizen jeans. I did a bunch of tags only to realize that they all needed to come off once another TM found the hidden EPC tag put on by the company.