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Those Striped Lines

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Bar codes are the oldest form of the automatic identification and data

capture (AIDC) technology in use today. Newer technologies such as biometrics

fall under AIDC, while relatively older ones in the category are electronic

article surveillance and magnetic data capture, among others. Although bar codes

constitute a two-decade technology, they are less prominently used in India than

anywhere else in the world. However, bar coding has the potential to impact

sales, gross margins and overheads of organizations across any industry. Today,

bar codes have even been completely integrated in supply chain processes, with

direct links to ERP applications.

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Code

Drivers
The key drivers to using bar codes in India:
l Growing buyer requirements across industry segments
l

The National IT Task Force has mandated the use of bar codes for all Indian products by end of 5 years
l

Automated physical goods flow normally precedes EDI which is a national priority 
l

Bar coded cargo gets faster clearance worldwide by customs, freight forwarders. etc. 

As mentioned earlier there are several bar-coding companies in the country, which supply labels and tags depending on designs. The bar code label costs are as low as 50 paise per label. EAN India is responsible for allocation of International Numbering standards used for bar coding and also extends technical advice. 

Simply put, a bar code is a front-end IT tool used for automatic and quick

data or information capture. It is considered to be 20 times faster and 20,000

times more accurate than any keyboard data entry. A series of bars and spaces,

which represent alpha-numerical information, it uses the binary system for

coding and decoding. Each bar represents ‘1’s and the spaces represent ‘0’,

while a thick bar is couple of ‘1’s clubbed together. There are several

versions of bar code standards, among which the most commonly used are UPC

(Universal Product Code) and European Article Numbering (EAN is a superset of

UPC). A standard bar code set appears with a 12-digit or a six-digit number.

These UPCs were first created to speed up and bring efficiency to the process of

retail units or outlets. Other commonly used symbols are Code 39, UCC/EAN 128,

Interleaved 2 or 5 etc. The selection of the symbology would depend on the kind

of organizational need and type of application used.

Microsoft is considered the first major software vendor that used source

tagging for its Office 97 suite, resulting in huge cost savings from theft. Ever

since, Microsoft has been encouraging retailers to use source tagging with their

products. An extensive use of data collection will be seen in transportation,

hospitals, schools and traffic police. For instance, using bar codes in the

management of a library eases a lot of the everyday tasks, especially in large

libraries where the number of transactions exceeds thousands. There is bar code

software available for the management of books, items in a hotel, vehicles

entering a premise, aircraft cargoes and couriers etc. In other words, any

segment whose transaction exceeds hundreds every day can make use of bar coding.

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Decoding

Drug Discovery
Purdue

University was in the news recently after it developed a method of bar

coding individual chemical compounds. The process allowed one to make

quicker, easier and more economical identification of most biologically

active compounds, among thousands in a drug- screening process. Each

compound is assigned a unique bar code bead. Scientists need to create

compound libraries to store millions of chemical variants in a minimal

number of chemical steps. But as the libraries are assembled, the newly

developed compounds are continually rearranged and resorted, making it

difficult to track information about the order in which the building

blocks are assembled. The new bar coding strategy encompasses different

stages of the drug discovery process whereby each bead carries vital

information about the chemical nature of the compounds. These bar coded

beads are synthesized with built- in spectroscopic bar codes. The barcodes

are read using infrared spectrometers and the chemical nature of the

active compound is then determined. Several months of laboriously

categorizing individual components are reduced to a few hours. The same

method can have applications in gene sequencing, biomedicine or

biotechnology, wherein the task of decoding is simplified.

Streamlining supply



Some of the issues that can be addressed using bar codes are maximizing

warehouse space, minimizing goods shrinkage, inventory and errors in delivery.

Bar codes enable automation throughout the supply chain, including optimization

of warehouse space, reduced shrinkage, time to market, and improved goods

tracking. So goods passing through a supply chain can be traced using bar codes.

As a good passes from one link to another the information about its location is

sent to a central information repository, which is shared between the sender and

the end receiver. There is then a real-time flow of information while minimizing

human intervention. Goods arriving at the wrong location can even be alerted.

Process efficiencies



Bar codes can be used from the point of production to the point of purchase,

keeping track of products produced and purchased. Most enterprise applications

used in warehouses, distribution chains, and by retailers has enabled the

integration barcode information. The ERP application used by Lee Cooper (called

the apparel production & distribution system) integrates information

received from barcode devices. Now Lee Cooper requires that each of their

garments be uniquely identifiable, both in terms of when it was produced and the

date of production. A company called E-Biz Systems devised a system of bar codes

for them, which ensures that each garment has a unique barcode on it. The

barcode information includes details like style, size, and name of fabricator,

date of production, lot number, and the unique serial number. The bar-codes are

used for receiving the garments from the fabricators and in-house production

into stock, generating pick-lists, dispatching cartons, selling the garments

from the retail outlets, taking the physical inventory of the stocks and

accepting .the sale rejects from the market.

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Devices for Bar Code Data Collection
Basic computing



Bar code scanners, printers, portable data collection terminals/computers, label-designing software, interface & communication software, labels & ribbons
Mobile computing



Mobile computers, hand held terminals, portable printers, interface software with backend application software, sales force, automation software, and distribution management software.
Wireless



Wireless hand held terminals and computers, wireless LAN cards for laptops and desktops, access points, antennas etc.

Asset management



There are several bar code applications that can be used in storehouses,

equipment or tool rooms. For example, if a school has an equipment room for

students to borrow sporting equipment as and when required. By scanning the

student’s ID, the equipment manager can quickly verify that the student is

cleared to take the equipment, and by entering the information into the

computer, the stockroom application can generate reports as to who has what

equipment and when it will be returned.

Companies wanting to keep track of fixed assets can also use bar codes.

Managers can maintain an accurate account of all fixed items in their business

such as computers, phones, desks, chairs, tables, and other office furniture.

This application of inventory management is used in almost all businesses,

organizations, and groups and a company’s inventory is more accurate.

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Cost savings



Bar coding will save billions of currencies, which will otherwise be lost in

theft, damage, and obsolescence. For example, the product by CheckPoint alerts a

store if its stock is in short supply and in some cases even generates a warning

if a particular medicine file, cheese packet, or a milk pack has expired.

To grow...



" There is a slow adoption of this technology as people are only

beginning to understand the extent and benefits of using it. It is only

awareness that will increase its usage in other areas," claims Ajay Bhutani,

CEO, Bar Code India. Most of their solutions have gone into the retail,

inventory control and tracking segments, where acceptability is much higher. In

the retail segment, its clients are ITC Will Sport and Marks & Spencer. It

is not uncommon anymore to see organized retail units like Pantaloon and Music

World using barcodes to keep an inventory stock of their assets. However it

would be wonderful if the same could be used even as alert systems for

generating a warning of an expiry date or of an approaching stock depletion.

Vendors



Some MNC players in the Indian market are Honk Kong based Checkpoint

Systems, Bartronics India and Bar Code India. Most Indian players import the

technology and sell them here. For example Bar Code India is a leading

distributor of US-based Symbol’s hardware and software. The success of any

barcode system requires a close attention to the reading equipment and the

quality of the printed barcode labels. It is of utmost importance that the

barcode labels have high contrast, neat bars and spaces, without any voids and

specks. In India it is yet to take off in the manufacturing segment in a big

way, but is already in use to some large extent in inventory, tracking and

shipping. Citibank, Maruti Udyog and Indian Airlines are using it extensively.

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Technology for tomorrow



To achieve the next leap forward in supply chain efficiency many

organizations abroad are turning to RFID. The usage level for RFID is low but is

an emerging technology that is to oust bar code in the near future. But this is

a future technology and the costs of radio tags are still very prohibitive. But

according to Bhutani," RFID is a complementary technology to bar coding,

and is being used only in certain applications today."

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Auto-ID center is developing

ways to use the tags in consumer product packages with blue chip companies such

as Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Gillette, Unilever, Target, Pepsi and

Coca-Cola. Most airline companies abroad already use RFID tags to improve

luggage-tracking services for customers.

This radio tag consist of silicon chips and an antennae to transmit the data

to a wireless receiver. Radio tags need not be in line-of sight in order to be

read, but rather within the field of the wireless receiver. As compared to bar

codes, radio tags are faster and can hold more information. These tags can be

inserted invisibly on clothes labels, items for sale, packages, numberplates and

a host of other items. Companies abroad are investing heavily on this technology

that can be used to improving supply chain management and make it a mass

production technology. It won’t be long before barcodes become more entrenched

in Indian businesses as well.

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Radhika Bhuyan in New Delhi

CASE STUDY: Warehousing Management, APBCL-style

Andhra Pradesh Beverages Corporation Ltd deals in wholesale trading–procuring

Indian-made liquor and beer from distilleries and breweries, stocking these in

its depots, before finally selling off to retailers. Also, the Department of

Prohibition and Excise requires information on APBCL’s operations. Here’s

how APBCL cracked it:

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The requirement



DPE needed information from APBCL about the cartons sent and what was delivered
where and to which depot and retail outlet. Earlier APBCL was entering all these

details of the cartons on paper. They had to enter every detail of the carton at

the time of dispatch, at the time of delivery at the depot, and while issuing

transport permit to retailers. So to bring about efficiency and ease in the

entire process, APBCL wanted a bar code solution.

The solution



So Bartronics studied their problem and decided to package all bottles in

cartons in lots of 12, 24, 48 or 96. Each bottle was given consecutive numbers,

whose cumulative gave a unique number to the carton. They created barcode carton

labels and supplied them to all 31 IML distilleries and 3 breweries. These

barcode carton labels had to have a box number unique all over the state. The

labels were affixed on the cartons at the time of packing at the distilleries

and breweries. When the cartons are unloaded at each depot the barcode

information in the label is scanned through a barcode reader and stored in the

computer. While issuing transport permits to retailers, the barcode on the

cartons is scanned once again. Each time the information is scanned, they are

stored in a common server on which basis of which MIS reports are generated.

Benefits



Some of the benefits derived from the implementation of a bar coding

solution were the elimination of paper work, reduction in errors, saving time,

reducing costs, enabling carton label tracking from the point of dispatch to the

retailer.

Equipment used



l Intermec 3400

D Printers (10 No’s)



l Hand Held
Terminals Trackers 2425 (05 nos)



l PSC QS — 6000 (5
No’s)



l Bartronics has
also used the technology for accessing Job Costing at Lakshmi Machine Works.


Source: Bartronics India

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