Barcode system
Encyclopedia
A barcode system is a network of hardware
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....

 and software, consisting primarily of mobile computers, printers, handheld scanners, infrastructure, and supporting software. Barcode systems are used to automate data collection where hand recording is neither timely or cost effective. Barcoding systems are not radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems even though the companies that provide barcode equipment will often also provide RFID equipment and many companies use both technologies as part of larger resource management
Resource management
In organizational studies, resource management is the efficient and effective deployment of an organization's resources when they are needed. Such resources may include financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology...

 systems.

History

In 1948, Bernard Silver
Bernard Silver
Bernard Silver was an early developer of barcode technology alongside Norman Joseph Woodland.Silver earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Drexel Institute of Technology in 1947...

 was a graduate student at Drexel Institute of Technology
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...

 in Philadelphia. A local food chain store owner had made an inquiry to the Drexel Institute asking about research into a method of automatically reading product information during checkout
Point of sale
Point of sale or checkout is the location where a transaction occurs...

. Silver joined together with fellow graduate student Norman Joseph Woodland
Norman Joseph Woodland
Norman Joseph Woodland is best known as one of the inventors of the barcode, for which he received US Patent 2,612,994 in October 1952. He is also known as N. Joseph Woodland and N.J. Woodland.-Personal life:...

 to work on a solution. Woodland's first idea was to use ultraviolet
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...

 light sensitive ink. The team built a working prototype but decided that the system was too unstable and expensive. They went back to the drawing board.
On October 20, 1949, Woodland and Silver filed their patent application
Patent application
A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for the invention described and claimed by that application. An application consists of a description of the invention , together with official forms and correspondence relating to the application...

 for the "Classifying Apparatus and Method", describing their invention as "article classification… through the medium of identifying patterns".

The first commercially successful barcode reading system was patented in November 1969 by John F. Keidel for the General Atronics Corp.

It was soon realized that there would have to be some sort of industry standard set. In 1970, the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code or UGPIC
Universal Product Code
The Universal Product Code is a barcode symbology , that is widely used in North America, and in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand for tracking trade items in stores. Its most common form, the UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each trade item...

 was written by a company called Logicon Inc. The first company to produce bar code equipment for retail trade use (using UGPIC) was the American company Monarch Marking
Universal Product Code
The Universal Product Code is a barcode symbology , that is widely used in North America, and in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand for tracking trade items in stores. Its most common form, the UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each trade item...

 in 1970, and for industrial use, the British company Plessey
Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after the second world war by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies...

 Telecommunications was also first in 1970. UGPIC evolved into the U.P.C. symbol set or Universal Product Code
Universal Product Code
The Universal Product Code is a barcode symbology , that is widely used in North America, and in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand for tracking trade items in stores. Its most common form, the UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each trade item...

, which is still used in the United States. George J. Laurer
George J. Laurer
George Joseph Laurer developed the Universal Product Code in 1973. As an engineer at IBM he was asked to develop the pattern used for the Universal Product Code....

 is considered the inventor of U.P.C. or Uniform Product Code, which was invented in 1973.
In June 1974, the first U.P.C. scanner was installed at a Marsh's supermarket
Marsh Supermarkets
Marsh Supermarkets is a retail food chain headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with stores throughout Central Indiana and parts of Ohio. Its parent company is Sun Capital Partners, headquarterd in Boca Raton, Florida.-History:...

 in Troy, Ohio. The first product to have a barcode included was a packet of Wrigley's
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
The William Wrigley Jr. Company is a company headquartered in the Wrigley Building in Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded on April 1, 1891, originally selling products such as soap and baking powder. In 1892, William Wrigley, Jr., the company's founder, began packaging...

 Gum.

Hardware

There is a wide range of hardware that is manufactured today for use in Barcode Systems. The best known brand of handheld scanners and mobile computers is Symbol
Symbol Technologies
Symbol Technologies is a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of mobile data capture and delivery equipment. The company specializes in barcode scanners, mobile computers, RFID systems and Wireless LAN infrastructure. Symbol Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola, and headquartered in...

, which is now a division of Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

. Other manufacturers include Intermec, HHP (Hand Held Products), Microscan Systems
Microscan Systems
Microscan Systems, Inc. is a manufacturer of precision data acquisition and control solutions for automation and OEM applications. Founded in 1982, Microscan provides systems for ID tracking, traceability and inspection...

, Unitech, Metrologic, PSC and PANMOBIL.

Software

While there is a range of hardware on the market, software is more difficult to find from the hardware manufacturers. Some ERP, MRP, and other inventory management software have built in support for barcode reading and some even allow the software to run directly on a mobile computer. Besides full management software, there are more than a few software development kits on the market that allow the developer to easily produce custom mobile interfaces and that handle the connect to the database. One such software is RFgen another is PeopleVox. Then there is always the option of developing a custom software solution, using a language such as C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

, C#, Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

, Visual Basic.NET, and many others. Often developing a custom interface using software such as RFgen or developing new, personalized software is the most effective method since it allows the individual to have a solution that is fitted to their exact needs.

In General

A typical barcode system consist of some infrastructure, either wired or wireless that connects some number of mobile computers, handheld scanners, and printers to one or many databases that store and analyze the data collected by the system. At some level there must be some software to manage the system. The software may be as simple as code that manages the connection between the hardware and the database or as complex as an ERP
Enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resource planning systems integrate internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application...

, MRP
Material requirements planning
Material requirements planning is a production planning and inventory control system used to manage manufacturing processes. Most MRP systems are software-based, while it is possible to conduct MRP by hand as well....

, or some other inventory management software.

Simple example

Assume ABC Inc. manufactures widget
Widget (economics)
The word widget is a placeholder name for an object or, more specifically, a mechanical or other manufactured device. It is an abstract unit of production. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "An indefinite name for a gadget or mechanical contrivance, esp. a small manufactured item" and...

s and they want to offer online shopping for their customers and they only want their customers to order widgets they have in stock. ABC already uses an ERP system to help manage their inventory and day-to-day operations at their manufacturing plant but for information to get into the ERP database an employee must enter the data manually using a desktop computer terminal. This method does not work well with ABC's plans because the inventory data is nowhere close to real time; in fact in most cases it is at least 24 hours old and sometimes as much as a week old if the data entry
Data processing
Computer data processing is any process that a computer program does to enter data and summarise, analyse or otherwise convert data into usable information. The process may be automated and run on a computer. It involves recording, analysing, sorting, summarising, calculating, disseminating and...

 person is on vacation. A solution to ABC's problem may be the installation of a barcode system. By installing a barcode system to help track inventory in real time ABC would be able to offer their customers online ordering and the customers could see which widgets were available and could in turn only be allowed to place orders for those widgets which were in stock. To install this barcode system ABC would need to first install a wireless network to cover most if not all of their manufacturing plant and warehouse, unless they planned on using wired barcode scanners. For this example, assume ABC chose to go with wireless scanners that communicate on a IEEE 802.11g frequency because ABC does not want their employees to be restricted to the limited range of wired scanners. Next ABC would need to either purchase an out of the box software package or have custom software developed to allow the hardware of the barcode system to communicate with their current ERP system. This is assuming ABC's ERP system does not have the ability to directly communicate with the wireless devices. Assume that the out of the box software vendor or the software developer whichever is chosen will take care of the setup and testing of the software. We are assuming this because the development and/or setup of this software is usually rather complicated and also because the process is different for almost all types of software. Next ABC will have to purchase and set up the hardware (scanners, printers, etc.) that the employees will use on a daily basis to help track ABC's inventory in real time. After the wireless network is set up and the software and hardware is in place ABC will have to start labeling its products with labels containing bar-coded information so the labels can be read by the new barcode system. The final step for ABC is to train its employees on the procedures of use for the barcode system.

Vendors

  • Microscan Systems, Inc.
  • Honeywell
    Honeywell
    Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....

  • Psion Teklogix
    Psion Teklogix
    Psion Teklogix Inc. is the operational business of Psion, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.Psion Teklogix is a global provider of solutions for mobile computing and wireless data collection...

  • Symbol
    Symbol Technologies
    Symbol Technologies is a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of mobile data capture and delivery equipment. The company specializes in barcode scanners, mobile computers, RFID systems and Wireless LAN infrastructure. Symbol Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola, and headquartered in...

  • Intermec
    Intermec
    Intermec Inc. is a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of Automated identification and data capture equipment, including barcode scanners, barcode printers, mobile computers and RFID systems....

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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