Barcode

INTRODUCTION

Barcodes or bar codes are easily found on the package of our daily usage items like toothpaste, soap, hair oil etc. As the term bar indicates straight horizontal lines, the barcodes are in a formation of such lines. Some lines are thick and some are thin. The lines are in black and white colors. Relevant informations about the goods are represented in the form of these codes. A special tool named Bar Code Reader (BCR) is used to decode the barcode and extract information out of it.

Barcodes comes in two formations.

• One dimensional (1D) – These barcodes have limited information about the commodity which includes color, size and type. These barcodes contain two parts – the barcode and the 12 digits Universal Product Code (UPC).

• Two dimensional (2D) – These barcodes have more information than 1D which includes pricing, manufacturing date, expiry date, manufacturer and product visual.

The first 6 digits of UPC represents the manufacturer identification number, next five digits represents item number which tells about the actual product. The last digit is called check digit to validate if the UPC was correct. All the 12 digits together in UPC is called GTIN-12.

The major benefit of barcode is that the warehouse could be managed efficiently with the use of proper software related to it. The information hidden in the barcode could easily be entered into the database management system of the warehouse in very less time. As the BCR will read the codes the information will automatically be stored in the database accurately.

The Barcode is created and maintained by an international institution GS1 (Global Standards 1), with headquarters in Brussels and Belgium. GS1 is responsible for keeping a standardized barcode system so that it could work anywhere in the world.

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APPLICATIONS

The evolution of barcode was necessary with the increase in the volume of transactions that a store or warehouse had to go through. We cannot think of entering the details manually. The uses are very wide like in:

• Retail stores
• Movie theatre
• Warehouse
• Post office speed post
• Billing