Part 3 of Safeguarding Your Assets series keeps the focus on controlling your inventory. In a prior issue (December 2005), we detailed inventory verification through stock taking procedures. In this issue, we will discuss the benefits of using the electronic identification of your products as another piece of the methodology developed to control your inventory.
The retail industry comes foremost to mind when "bar-coded" inventory is mentioned. In an industry that has changed significantly in recent years, it is the wise retailer that has recognized the benefits of barcode automation. Other non-retail businesses could benefit significantly by adopting this controlled identification as well. You may have read recently that Zebra, a major barcode software and hardware company, has surged to the top of the market with US government adopting its technology as a top security military measure. The fact that the US government has adopted this electronic identification as part of its protection against terrorist campaigns should be solid proof of the control benefit achievable.
Identification of your inventory through a barcode convention from the point of order, sale, shipping, receiving and warehouse management also improves efficiency within your company. The use of scanners to read these identification tags, are not only quicker, but also more accurate. Any time a business can reduce human errors, increase accuracy and save time, the results will be reflected in a better bottom line. A barcode scanner reads the code and passes the input back to an application such as VIgilant. In order for the scanner to translate what it is reading, you need to have a code it understands. The code technology, usually referred to as symbology, is governed by standards that are administered or controlled by various organizations - the Uniform Code Council (UCC), the Automatic Identification Manufacturers (AIM) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Barcode technology is not new - the patent for barcodes was issued on 7 October 1952. For this innovation, we can thank Bernard Silver and Joseph Woodland, 2 forward thinking research students. Later, in 1973, a common standard barcode symbology was introduced as a system of electronic identification and developed for items by the grocery industry to speed check out transactions and the UPC code became part of our daily life. There are other conventions depending on the needs of the business such as Code 39, Code 128, Codabar and Interleaved 2of5 code. We'll briefly outline the more popular choices to increase the knowledge to select the right code system for your inventory.
The UPC code is the retail common standard that was developed for use in Canada and the United States. In 1976, the EAN (European Article Numbering) was introduced to satisfy the needs of the foreign market. As of January 2005, all retail scanning systems in the USA must be able to accept the EAN-13 and the UPC-A codes, expanding the 'standard' to these 2 specific types of codes.
As a trivia item, the first UPC scanner was installed in 1974 at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio and the first product to have a barcode was Wrigley's gum!
There are several code conventions that are used in barcodes. Even the standard UPC and EAN codes have more than one type. This often accomodates your current coding practices - in other words, implementing a barcode solution can be as simple and quick as you want to make it. An exploration of the main conventions in practice should help in your decision as to which one is best for you.
Starting with the standard, the most commonly used UPC codes can be either UPC-A or UPC-E. The EAN codes can be EAN-13 or EAN-8.
The UPC-A consists of 12 numbers. From the far left, the first number relates to the product type and is followed by a space. There are several predetermined types defined such as "0" used for regular UPC codes, "2" for random weight items, "3" for National Drug Code and National Health related items, "4" for in shop use on non-food items and no format restrictions, "5" for coupons, "7" also for regular UPC codes, with 1, 6, 8 and 9 being "reserved." The next 5 numbers represent the producer, followed by five digits for product identification. The last character on the far right is a parity check to ensure that barcode scanner has read the product code correctly. Obviously, the UPC-A code is for direct manufacturers or producers of a product. For this type of barcode, you must register and be assigned your producer number and must develop a numbering convention for your product and calculate your parity check. Vigilant, for example, as a software developer and publisher, owns a series of barcodes for its branded software products. If you are not a manufacturer, you need only to use the UPC codes of the manufacturer of the products you carry. With Vigilant, you can assign your own primary code to a product but identify in the auxiliary table all the barcodes that belong to that product. When any of the barcodes are sacnned, it will tie back into your one primary product.
The UPC-E is a shorter version of the UPC developed for situations where space on the product is limited. You'll find a good example of this in the soda can market (for example, a Coke can). In this coding, you will note that from the far left a number for the category, the middle 6 numbers for the producer and product identifier and on the far right the parity check digit. All zeros in the producer and product information have been suppressed out of the barcode to allow the shorter version, but they are reconstructed after scanning within a decoding device at the checkout.
Both UPC-A and UPC-E can have 2 or 5 digit supplemental codes appended to them. The UPC coding practice has become the most recognized one for use in retail for its maximum efficiency.
Another most popular coding system is the EAN. Similar to the UPC, in that it is a numerical convention and consists of 2 types, EAN-13 and EAN-8. The ISBN number (called Bookland) used to code books (International Standard Book Number) is an EAN-13 barcode with a 5 digit supplemental code to identify the code and the price.
EAN-13 codes are comprised of the first 2 (and sometimes 3) digits on the left representing the country in which the barcode was issued, not the country in which the product was produced. The next 5 digits are for the producer of the product. The nest 5 indicate the product and the last of the 13 digits is the parity check.
The EAN-8 code serves the same prupose as the UPC-E - it is a shorter version of the EAN-13 for small products with little space for a barcode. The first 2 from the left are for the country in which the barcode was issued; the next 5 identify the producer and the product. The eighth and last digit is the parity check.
If the characteristics and/or limitations of the UPC are not for you, you have other choices. As a matter of fact, you would not be alone in that another symbology, Code 39, is actually the most popular system used in industrial barcode systems. Code 39 gives the ability to use alpha as well as numeric characters, seven special characters and under qualified conditions, ASCII characters. The US Department of Defense, Code 39 was designed and introduced to control their shipments and later, was adopted by the automotive industry. This code is very popular with Vigilant customers because of its alphanumeric capability, but only for those who don;t mind a large label - Code 39 uses more label sapce that any other code system.
Code 128 is much more efficient in its production of a code that Code 39. It has even greater capability in that it can use all 128 ASCII characters, produces the smallest label using 6 or more characters, more message check routines giving the highest integrity results, can make use of function codes and alphanumeric characters. If you want to print Code 128, search for a good specialty barcode producing software and printer (for example, Zebra for software and printers or for software only, BarTender).
Your Vigilant software has been designed to read any UPC's, Code 39 and Code 128 barcodes and can export its internal code to an ASCII format which can be picked up by a third party specialty barcode software to print out barcodes for your products. You will notice that Vigilant has some built in features to provide extra safeguarding for your inventory - printing the appropriate number of labels at receiving, ability to scan at ordering, selling, receiving, stocktaking - virtually any aspect of identifying inventory.
Other less common barcoding technology includes CodeBar (developed by Pitney Bowes and used by library circulation systems and shipment tracking by FedEx overnight package delivery) and Interleaved 2of5 (developed by computer Identics). These are not particularly suited to Vigilant customers and, as such, the ability to read these is not included in Vigilant's solutions.
Whether you use your manufacturers' codes and/or develop your own barcoding, the electronic recognition of these codes through use of scanners and portable data collection devices go a long way in adding an extra layer of security for that inventory.
