Bar Coding
By Nick Mitchell
To Be Covered
• What is a Barcode
• What are some of the uses of
Barcodes
• How does a Barcode work
• Where you may find a Barcode
• How a firm may use Barcodes
• Summary
What is a Barcode
• Like “License Plates”
– Identifies an item by
the numbers and/or
letters stored in the
barcode, once read a
vast amount of
information can be
stored and related to a
product.
• 300 different types
– Different schemes of
bars and spaces are
arranged for coding
data.
Uses Of Barcodes
• Products
– Consumer products such as:
magazines, food products, etc.
• Services
– Gyms and facilities which track
attendance.
How do barcodes work
• Identifier
– This allows a computer to search for
information about a product from a numerical or
alphabetical code.
• Beams
– Beams of light from a reader take a picture of
the barcode and reads the relative widths of
both the bars and the spaces, giving each code
a unique identifier
Where you may find
barcodes
•
•
•
•
•
•
Grocery Stores
Recreation Clubs
Ski Resorts
Manufacturing companies
FedEx & UPS
Retail Stores
How they may be used
• Grocery Stores
– During stocking of shelves entering
the number of products and each
kind
– During check out the checkers
scan products brining up
identification of products, removal
from inventory, and totaling up
amount due.
How they may be used
cont.
• A Gym or Recreation Club
– These business will use
barcodes for the club member’s
passes.
– As a user of the club enters the
facility they will run their card
through a scanner.
– Once this is scanned the
members information will be
brought up
• Picture, billing, dates of sign-up,
and maybe work-out programs.
How they may be used
cont.
• Ski Resorts
– Some resorts track a skiers
vertical feet
• By using scanners a lift operator can
scan a skiers pass with a beam.
This will then be entered into a
database for tracking
– Season pass verification
• Similar to how Recreational clubs,
these resorts can use barcodes on
the back of passes to measure
attendance.
How the may be used
cont.
• Manufacturing company
– Serial numbers may be assigned to each
individual product.
– Once produced these product will be
entered into Finished Goods Inventory
(FGI) by scanning them in to a software
program.
– When these products are taken out of
FGI and shipped or purchased they can
be scanned to be removed from the
inventory system.
How the may be used
cont.
• FedEx & UPS
– These companies rely on timeliness
and accuracy. Scanning each
package throughout its journey helps
to ensure a packages delivery.
– Barcodes on packages contain
destination, weight or dimensional
weight, time of departure and
location, cost, and type of service
How the may be used
cont.
• Retail Stores
– Used during the inventory of
clothing and apparel, or other
consumer goods.
– Also used during check-out, the
use of barcodes will automatically
deduct from inventory as items are
purchased.
Summary
• Benefits of barcodes
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Speed
Efficiency
Accuracy
Access to information
Completeness of information
Over all competence of logistics