Report on Bar-coding

Merits and demerits

Sunil kumar N

WHAT IS BAR CODING?

A bar code (often seen as a single word, barcode) is the small image of lines (bars) and spaces that is affixed to retail store items, identification cards, and postal mail to identify a particular product number, person, or location. The code uses a sequence of vertical bars and spaces to represent numbers and other symbols. A bar code symbol typically consists of five parts: A quiet zone, A start character Data characters (including an optional check character) A stop character and another quiet zone.

A barcode reader is used to read the code. The reader uses a laser beam that is sensitive to the reflections from the line and space thickness and variation. The reader translates the reflected light into digital data that is transferred to a computer for immediate action or storage. Bar codes and readers are most often seen in supermarkets and retail stores, but a large number of different uses have been found for them. They are also used to take inventory in retail stores; to check out books from a library; to track manufacturing and shipping movement; to sign in on a job; to identify hospital patients; and to tabulate the results of direct mail marketing returns. Very small bar codes have been used to tag honey bees used in research. Readers may be attached to a computer (as they often are in retail store settings) or separate and portable, in which case they store the data they read until it can be fed into a computer.

BAR CODE TECHNOLOGY:

It is an automatic identification technology Bar code is a predefined format of dark bars and white spaces Structured to contain a specific piece of information It allows real-time data to be collected accurately and rapidly Combination of barcode technology with computer and application software improves performance, productivity and profitability.

BENEFITS OF BAR CODING:

Represent unique identity of a product Accuracy of data input (error free) Aid effective management of resources and inventories Labor savings by avoiding manual system Cost efficient Real time data collection Measurement of work in progress throughout the factory Rapid access to total production costs More accurate dispatch. Easy to learn: no expensive training for staff as easy to learn. Easy to use: requires minimum keystrokes and the mouse is never required (but you can use it if you want). Accommodating: if something is not in stock can send a customer order to the purchase order system Save your time, increase accuracy and provide greater control over what happens at the sales counter. It will enhance operation, providing with increased speed, accuracy and control of inventory - all of which lead to increased profits and more time to focus on growing business.

BAR CODE APPLICATIONS:

INVENTORY CONTROL Portable readers

WORK-IN PROCESS TRACKING (WIP) COMPANY INVENTORY Raw materials WIP (Components, Assemblies, Semi finished Products) Finished Products

SHIPPING ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI) Direct communication between computers of two companies (Manufacturer & Vendor) Industry-wide EDI standards Reduces cost and saves time of business transaction

WARE HOUSING There is no one standard bar code; instead, there are several different bar code standards called symbologies that serve different uses, industries, or geographic needs

THE FOLLOWING TABLE SUMMARIZES THE MOST COMMON BAR CODE STANDARDS:
Bar Code Standard Uses

Uniform Product Code Retail stores for sales checkout; inventory, etc. (UPC) Code 39 (Code 3 of 9) POSTNET European Article Number (EAN) Japanese Article Number (JAN) Bookland ISSN bar code Code 128 Interleaved 2 of 5 Codabar Identification, inventory, and tracking shipments

Encoding zip codes on U.S. mail A superset of the UPC that allows extra digits for country identification

Similar to the EAN, used in Japan

Based on ISBN numbers and used on book covers Based on ISSN numbers, used on periodicals outside the U.S. Used in preference to Code 39 because it is more compact Used in the shipping and warehouse industries Used by Federal Express, in libraries, and blood banks

MICR (Magnetic Ink A special font used for the numbers on the bottom of bank checks Character Recognition) OCR-A The optical character recognition format used on book covers for the human readable version of the ISBN number Used for the human readable version of the UPC, EAN, JAN, Bookland, and ISSN bar codes and for optional human-readable digits with Code 39 and Interleaved 2 of 5 symbols Used by the United Parcel Service A new 2-D type of bar code that can encode up to 1108 bytes of information; can become a compressed, portable data file (which is what the "PDF" stands for)

OCR-B

Maxicode PDF417