Common Applications

Widespread use of bar code technology began 20 years ago in the supermarket industry and succeeded to the degree that virtually every grocery supplier now uses the U.P.C. symbol on product packaging to enable point-of-sale (POS) scanning. Mass merchandisers as well as a wide range of nongrocery retailers have followed grocers' leads so that POS scanning is now a common fact of retail life.

Fifteen years ago, the Department of Defense required all incoming products to include a Code 39 bar code on packaging. This mandate ushered in a wave of manufacturers' implementations of bar code systems beginning at the shipping dock and quickly spreading to the factory floor. On the factory floor, bar code technology was used for time-and-attendance and labor reporting, work in process (WIP), inventory control, and various WIP applications like lot and process control, quality control, and finished goods inventory. Bar code technology then moved to the warehouse for receiving, putaway, picking, and packing applications.

Recent economic pressures, as well as increasing global competition, brought a giant wave of downsizing across a range of industries. In an effort to decrease costs and improve productivity, bar code technology became a priority for nearly every industry - from utilities to health care - especially in materials management (a.k.a. logistics) applications. Retail businesses that previously used bar codes only at POS followed Wal-Mart's lead to automate their warehousing and transportation functions and reaped tremendous cost benefits.

Bar code technology is also used extensively for such applications as access control, asset tracking, cataloging of books and files by libraries and archives, document management, hazardous waste tracking, package tracking/delivery, and vehicle control/identification.

Reprinted with permission from AIM, Inc.
www.aimglobal.org

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