Introduction

Efficiently run businesses require many operations to flow seamlessly and without hinderance. Automatic Identification or "bar codes", as the industry is more often referred to, makes these steps more efficient and accurate. A bar code does not change how a business operates, but it makes procedures faster and more accurate, providing useful management information in a timely manner. Bar codes can be employed in virtually all organizations and all professions to increase the productivity, efficiency and accuracy of specific business processes.

What is a Bar Code?

A bar code is simply a set of symbols used to represent alpha-numeric information. Basically, instead of seeing the number "1", or the letter "A", you would see a series of bars, both fat and thin, used to represent that number.

So, why replace the alpha-numeric characters with a bar code in the first place, you might ask. Humans can easily determine that a strange combinations of lines and curves and dots are put together to form a letter or number, but computers aren't as quick in deciphering such information. Even though Optical Character Recognition has come a long way in recent years, it's much quicker and much more accurate for a mechanical device to decode and series of black and white lines than it is to read human text.

A number of bar code standards have been developed and refined over the years into accepted languages called symbologies. We would use different symbologies for different application in the same way that we would use a bold or itallic font to emphasize a particular line of text in a report. Different symbologies, or "bar code fonts" are used for different applications. By having standardized symbologies, we ensure that when you print a bar code, I will be able to scan and decode it with my equipment and you will be able to scan and decode my bar codes—as long as we both use the same code and are within the specifications dictated by the barcode standards.

Bar code symbologies come in two basic varieties. They can be either linear or two dimensional in their configuration. A linear bar code symbology consists of a single row of dark lines and white spaces of varying but specified width and height, as indicated by the example below.

Similarly, a 2-Dimensional symbology can be configured into a stacked or matrix format. Two dimensional bar codes are special rectangular codes which ‘stack’ information in a manner allowing for more information storage in a smaller amount of space.

The amount of data that can be encoded in a linear barcode symbology is more limited than that of a 2-D bar code symbology. A one inch 2-D matrix symbology, for example, can encode thousands of characters of data, whereas a comparable linear bar code would have to be several feet long to hold the same amount of information.

What are Bar Code Systems Made of?

Bar code systems come in many different sizes and shapes. The complexity of system required is determined by the application. A basic scanning system is fundamentally broken down into the following four components:

Component 1 - The Bar Code Printer
The bar code printer provides the first component part in a bar code system. A variety of technologies and methods exist to print a bar code label. You can use laser printers and pre-set templates (often included in label design software such as Wasp Labeler or Zebra Bar One software) to print your bar code labels. They are usually printed onto Avery stock. More commonly, labels are printed using bar code label printers such as those made by Intermec, Datamax, or Zebra. These printers print labels much faster and are of higher quality than those printed using a conventional laser printer.

Component 2 - The Bar Code Label
As mentioned above, you need the bar code printer to print the bar code labels. In addition, you need some software application that can design your labels. These are the same labels that you will then attach to a box or an asset for tracking. An item label can contain any combination of text, graphic or bar code information. Many label packages such as Wasp Labeler or Zebra Bar One, have pre-made templates that can easily start you on your way to designing your label. In addition, they have compliance label templates for specific industry labels such as the automobile industry.

Component 3 - Scanning Equipment for Data Collection
The data collection phase occurs through the use of scanners that instantly and accurately read, capture and decipher the information contained in the bar code label. Scanners read information much faster and more reliably than humans can write or type. Thus, significantly reducing the rate or likelihood of error. There are two different types of scanners: contact and non-contact. Contact scanners required physical contact to scan as opposed to non-contact scanners which can be several inches to several feet away. Of these two types of scanners, there is also one other major attribute; they are either decoded or non-decoded. Decoded scanners have built in hardware decoders that interpret the meaning of a bar code before sending the data to the computer. Undecoded scanners simply have light sources that capture the encrypted data and sends them to a decoder of some sort. Decoders are either in-line hardware units or software decoders that run on your computer. As you may have guessed, decoded units are usually more expensive than their undecoded counterparts. They do have the distinct advantage of only having one component to worry about if something breaks down instead of trouble shooting many components to find out why your bar codes aren't reading properly.

Component 4 – Capturing the Data to an External Database
The final component to establishing a simple bar code system is the database. Just because you've created and scanned bar codes successfully doesn't mean you've completed the loop to creating a complete and effective bar code system. To be able to effectively use the codes you've created and scanned, you need a database of some type to relay and update information. Many bar codes can be tied to item numbers for example. These item numbers can then, in turn, be linked to information about the item, such as product description, price, inventory quantity, accounting, etc. For example, let's say you have widget A, with a corresponding bar code that has the value of 1234. When you sell widget A, you scan the bar code. This, in turn, causes a chain reaction that tells your database that you: have one less widget A in stock, that you should charge $.20 for widget A, that this information should be passed onto accounting, that the product needs to be shipped only through UPS ground, etc. All of these actions were caused by scanning the bar code representing Widget A. You get the gist to the significance of having an external database.

There are many other configurations, but this is the fundamental building block for bar coding.

Why Should You Consider Bar Coding?

Implementing a proper bar code system offers tremendous advantages to a company. The most compelling advantages of bar coding and automatic data collection are:

Accuracy
Bar coding increases accuracy by reducing the likelihood of human errors from manual entry or miscommunication from misread or mislabeled items.

Ease-of-Use
Bar codes are easy-to-use provided the appropriate hardware and software aspects are in place to maximize the process of automatic data collection. Obviously, pulling a trigger to enter in inventory is going to take much less effort and brain drain than it would to accurately account for all the inventory by hand.

Uniform Data Collection
Diverse compliance standards and standardized bar code symbologies ensure that bar code information is captured and relayed in a fashion that is universally understood and accepted.

Timely Feedback
Bar coding promotes timely feedback in that data is captured in real-time as it occurs enabling decisions to be made from current information.

Improved Productivity
Bar codes improve many activities that streamline workflows throughout a business. Remember when cashiers used to enter the price of your groceries by hand?...

Increased Profitability
The increased efficiencies that bar coding promotes enables companies to save costs and substantially improve their bottom line.