As conglomerates go, Johnson & Johnson is surely one of the biggest and best-known: It supports 160 companies in 50 countries worldwide and is the world's largest and most comprehensive manufacturer of health care products serving consumer, pharmaceutical, and professional markets, with annual revenues of $15.7 billion.

One of those companies, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, Inc., is located in Royston, Georgia, where (according to Information Technology Consultant Dwight Medders) the baseball great Ty Cobb overlooks the 260,000 square-foot plant and its 300 employees from his final resting place. The Royston plant manufactures such familiar household products as JOHNSON'S Baby Powder, SHOWER TO SHOWER Body Powder, and JOHNSON'S HEALTHFLOW Baby Bottles.

Like all major manufacturers for the retail trade, Johnson & Johnson has been labeling products according to U.P.C./EAN standards for 18 years, but using bar codes for internal processes is a more recent development. About two years ago the company moved, incrementally, to automated data capture in finished goods and then in shipping. Johnson & Johnson has been putting U.P.C. shipping labels on cartons to meet retail customers' requirements since 1988, and the first inventory-tracking application was implemented to scan these bar codes already in place.

"Originally we were doing direct key entry of summary data on furnished goods into our MFG Pro MRP system," Mr. Medders said. "Of course, that caused a number of problems: People would batch the data to the system [resident on a DEC VAX 4500] and sometimes enter it a full day later, so inventories weren't up to date. Also the user interface was not friendly, causing errors in quantities, codes, and routings.

"We had the bar code shipping label for the retail trade on the cartons, so we decided to scan cases with a fixed-mount scanner as they came down the line from production," Mr. Medders explained. "Trouble was, we had a high percentage of scan errors as well as other errors; for example, the scanner would count damaged packages that we didn't ship.

"About a year and a half ago, we switched to handheld scanners. The first handheld we tried couldn't read the carton labels' two bar codes, which were in 14-digit U.P.C. code separated with a barrier bar from our own four-digit, Interleaved 2 of 5 product-modification code. The scanner couldn't read the second bar code, which we used for product revisions," Mr. Medders said.

"We needed a programmable scanner with a keyboard and screen, so we contacted Compsee, a systems integrator in Mt. Gilead, North Carolina," he continued. "They recommended the Mars MEQ 530 LR laser scanner/terminal, which we hardwired directly into the VAX. Working with Compsee, we programmed it with BASIC to recognize both bar codes on the carton, along with some user functionality -things like a menuing system, the ability to deal with nonstandard pallet quantities, a scanner-status option, and built-in intelligence to make sure the [Zebra Z105 thermal transfer]printer was on-line."

How it Works

DEC consultants developed a data collection program that would interface with the MFG Pro MRP system on the VAX. The program tracked finished-goods inventory and printed a pallet label encoding (in Code 128) the product code, quantity, unit of measure, manufacturing site, date of manufacture, lot number, and a serialized pallet number.

"Keeping the data collection program separate allows it to scan and collect data while database backups and other maintenance on the VAX is going on," Mr. Medders said. "This proved important because early this year corporate headquarters centralized our computers in New Jersey. We didn't want to trust critical communications over 1000 miles, so we put the application on our own VAX 4000-60 workstation. Now we communicate in homegrown client/server mode, where our VAX workstation collects the data and updates the MRP program on the VAX in New Jersey." Updates come in periodic intervals that vary by production line from direct transactions to four-hour updates, he added.

Linda Hill, another IT consultant, designed the Royston system. "When a pallet comes off the end of each production line, operators scan one of the cartons on the pallet, and the system translates the U.P.C. shipping code into our part number, which triggers two transactions," Ms. Hill said. "The Zebra prints a pallet tag encoding the whole pallet quantity, updates inventory on the MRP system, and at the same time creates a bar code pallet file, which is integrated into a separate product release and shipping system."

Nonstandard pallets are common, Ms. Hill explained, because it's a company policy not to mix lots or date codes. "For nonstandard pallets at the end of the day, or a run," shed said, "the operator key-enters the quantity on the MEQ keyboard, then scans the carton code."

"At shipping, we only scan the serialized number on the pallet," Mr. Medders said. "The data associated with that number is held in a separate product release system that allows us to trace finished goods by product code, lot number, truck, and destination. Essentially, we scan the pallets as we load them into trucks, using Symbol LS3000 scanners. This local database also updates the MRP system periodically-anywhere between ten minutes and four hours. But production personnel also have the ability to flush the transactions through if anyone needs the data immediately, to do a cycle count, for example."

"When the pallet tag is scanned," Ms. Hill added, "the system flags that the pallet has been shipped and attached it to a trailer number and other relevant data.

Impounded product, for example, can't be unloaded until the release date. Our distribution centers are also interfaced to the MRP and product-release systems, giving them access to this data."

Visible Benefits

Johnson & Johnson hasn't quantified the benefits of the automated system, but Mr. Medders pointed out that savings are considerable. "The new system was critical in eliminating clerical help, and we've substantially increased data accuracy. We have more accurate and timely inventory data, and finished-good lot traceability in voluntary compliance with corporate and regulatory requirements," he said.

Ms. Hill added that the visibility of product in shipping wouldn't be possible without automated data collection, and they've also eliminated quite a bit of paperwork because shipping operators no longer need to fax documents. Currently one plant is using the system, but the company has active projects to automate finished goods in two more. "We've been very pleased with it," Mr. Medders concluded. "Today, we often ship finished goods within 30 minutes of production. This wouldn't have been possible without bar coding.

Reprinted From:

ID Systems
Helmers Publishing, Inc.
December 1995