We collect labor data with units from American Barcode Systems. We use the wands and they seem to work decent. We're also looking to incorporate a barcode system for inventory.

How do companies handle barcoding and/or data collection when one employee works on 2 parts or 2 machines at one time, but they have different cycle times?  (Usually in CNC applications).

Ed,
 
No, you do not need custom programming for this. All a bar code reader does is to provide a substitute method of entering keystrokes (usually multiple at once). Just connect the wedge in between the keyboard and the tower and the gun (FARRRR better than the pen or wand style) to the wedge and away you go.
 
Karen,
 
DBA has a setting in the defaults that allows one employee to log in simultaneously to 2 work orders and it will split the time evenly. The second scenario (multiple machines/work centres) it does not deal with, especially different cycle times.

There IS no way in DBA to deal with it. The data collection simply does not allow for it. One of my former clients (a 35 user site) used a custom program with a good deal of user definable calculation parameters and a HUGE amount of code to do some background auto-calcs and then Al created some custom TAS middleware to interface it DBA and bring in and post the data.

As far as hardware recommendations, see http://www.istechsupport.com/ts_mq8.asp for a list of some models that othe DBA users have recommended.
 
As for the different cycle times - this is the way DBA works:
 
Worker comes in and logs into WO #1 and begins work.  Once a few parts have run through and he is happy with the flow, he logs into WO #2.  Then after that is running, he logs into WO #3.  An hour or so later, WO #1 is finished so he logs out of WO #1 and reports a quantity complete.
 
For the first block of time, 100% of his time goew to WO #1 as that is all he is logged into.  When he adds WO #2, the system automatically clocks out of WO #1 and reclocks back into both #1 and #2 so this next increment of time is divided by 2 jobs.  Then when he adds WO #3, it clocks him out of #1 and #2, then clocks back into all 3 and this next increment of time is diided by 3.  When he finishes #1 and clocks out, it actually clocks out of all 3 then clocks back in to # 2 & 3 so they are charged now at the 2 job rate.