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You cannot overemphasize the importance of barcoding solutions in data collection. This amazing technology helps enhance operational efficiency in any setting by simplifying data collection activities that would otherwise be too tedious and resource-intensive. Barcoding systems are used to speed up and simplify such processes and also to ensure that the data or information gathered is accurate.

In order to do so, barcoding equipment and software feature specialized technologies that are able to record, read, interpret, process, and display data in a very efficient way. Take for example the movement of stock in a huge retail chain like Wal-Mart. Instead of spending endless hours manually recording every transaction on a physical ledger, customized barcoding systems collaborate to ensure seamless and accurate data collection and recording per transaction. The collected information is then compiled and analyzed using various financial and business functions to give a definitive report on the state of inventory at any given time. Considering the incredibly important role that barcoding systems play in personal, business, and industrial operations, one must be extra careful when acquiring one. The following tips cover the main guidelines for acquiring an excellent barcoding solution.

Your Needs And Preferences

When shopping for barcoding equipment and software, you should always be guided by your needs and preferences. The barcoding industry is quite monolithic and there are all sorts of innovative kits designed to solve or handle a hodgepodge of data collection needs. You need to consider your specific data collection needs and then choose the most befitting solution. This means that you have to outline your data, hardware, and software needs in order to select a suitable barcoding solution.

Quality/Condition

While you are still defining your barcoding needs, you should go a step further and consider your system preferences. This is more to do with the physical and operational competence of a prospective system than its basic functionality. Simply put, instead of just settling for a certain barcoding solution because it fulfills let’s say your inventory tracking or event attendance needs; you should also consider its physical and technological condition before acquisition. This should be fairly easy because you just need to select trusted models with the latest and best technologies and any other technical characteristics.

Availability

Then you have to confirm that the desired barcoding solution is available. Again this should not be a big hustle because of late there are so many dealers and manufactures offering all kinds of innovative barcoding solutions. The internet has made things much easier because product access is no longer constrained by geographical boundaries or distances. Pick a competent and reliable dealer after evaluating his industry reputation and assessing his online catalog for quality and variety. Place the order and you are good to go.

Terms Of Acquisition

All the aforementioned factors are irrelevant if you can’t afford the product. Despite high industry competition, some barcoding systems are still quite pricey. Luckily for us customers, competition has brought forth a new acquisition option: renting or leasing. You do not have to invest huge sums of money to access high-end barcoding equipment — just hire. You can rent barcode readers, scanners, printers, and even software at a cheaper rate for all your data collection needs.  Other crucial considerations include maintenance, additional setup costs and accessories, terms of payment and delivery, and after sales service.

Although it has only been around for a few dozen decades, barcode technology is ranked among the most important business technologies. Up until a few years ago, barcodes were exclusively used for data collection in conventional business activities like inventory management and event attendance control. But advances in other technologies in the recent past have spurred other innovative applications in things like advertisement, video games, health and nutrition etc. Even the original barcoding solutions have expanded to include special applications like equipment inspection, delivery tracking, and labor production reporting and management.

As you can see, barcoding technology is vastly popular, which is mainly due to its many functional applications. But despite its immense popularity in the business world, some people are still ignorant about its nature and usefulness. The following discussion aims to shed some light on some of the most important features and characteristics of this wondrous innovation. Read on for an insightful lesson on barcoding solutions.

What Is A Barcode?

It is a unique marker or identifier that is encoded with some descriptive information about a specific object. The data is encrypted or coded and posted on a label by a barcoding printer and then the label is attached to the object of interest. The coded data is optically read and interpreted by special devices called scanners and readers. It is then processed and analyzed by a customized barcoding system to infer various changes or alterations in the whole ecosystem. Barcodes are of two types, linear and 2D or matrix, and they can be encoded in many different styles or languages like the Universal Product Code (UPC), Code 128, and CPC Binary etc.

Applications

As discussed above, barcodes are used in many different business activities. The main business applications include inventory control and asset tracking where bar-coded stock items and business assets are scanned and the data recorded/stored in various systems respectively. There is also the aforementioned event attendance tracking solutions, which are variously designed to track participation in a group setting. Applications include tracking arrival and departure times of individuals in group events like employees in a tradeshow, students in school, or invited guests at a seminar. The system uses data collected using scanners and readers from bar-coded badges and IDs to create data reports. You can buy any of these barcoding solutions or you can opt to hire everything. Today there are even barcode software rentals where you can lease customized programs for your data collection exercise.

Fundamental Features

There are thousands of barcoding solutions in countless industries and businesses around the world today. And although they are all customized to suit specific business tasks, they all share some basic characteristics. For starters, they are all defined by their data collection methodologies. Secondly, all barcoding systems are supported by or feature some hardware components, which are usually regarded as accessories during setup, for physical data collection. And last but not least, every barcoding solution features a certain type of application software customized to solve a specific data collection problem. For instance, one type of application program enables a barcoding system to track event attendees and another to report and monitor workforce productivity.

Manufacturers And Dealers

There are countless technology companies dealing in barcodes. Every component in a barcoding system comes from specialized manufacturer. Some of the most esteemed brands for hardware devices like printers, scanners and readers include Godex, TSC, Intermec, Zebra, Datalogic, Brother, CipherLab, Opticon, Honeywell, and Motorola. Software companies like Wasp, Redbeam, and Foxfire specialize in creating barcoding programs.

In its most basic form, the career calling of any engineer is to identify a problem and then come up with a feasible solution using scientific knowledge. In this regard, barcoding engineers have outdone themselves by creating amazing solutions for all data collection problems. Like in every other active setting, information or data is always flowing in and out and even within a business setup. In a typical shop, financial data flows between the owner and his suppliers, owner and employees, employees and customers, owner and landlord, government authorities and owner, the data “links” are endless. Anyway, all this data should be recorded, processed, and analyzed in appropriate ledgers to ensure proper business management. Before the invention of barcodes, all this was done manually using pen and paper. Nowadays, innovative barcoding solutions have been developed to efficiently manage business inventory and assets, monitor labor productivity, and even to track job or event attendance. The whole point is to make the data collection process fast, accurate, and uncomplicated.

One of the most wondrous barcoding solutions is designed to optimize production through labor monitoring and management. It goes by many different names including the labor reporting/management software, production reporting/monitoring/management system, works in process (WIP) system etc. Essentially, it is a digital performance/production labor supervisor. It maintains real-time records of each employee’s activities in relation to company production. Check it out.

Brief Description

The main function of this kind of barcoding solution is to manage and track production and manufacturing projects. The system uses barcodes and scanners to monitor and report on the progress of a specific project in real-time. This data is used to eliminate lags and/or bottlenecks in production by tracking employees’ arrival and departure times and individual participation and contribution to a project. Errors in manufacturing are eliminated and personnel management streamlined.

How It Works

There are several steps in the creation, implementation, and execution of this barcoding solution. First, all the active components in a production line or manufacturing station are tagged or assigned barcodes. Mainly, the system is concerned with the employees, their job stations, production functions and processes, and the products to be manufactured. Scanners are then used to track and report on the operational activities and interactions between all these production components. Printers are used to create the barcodes and suitable application programs are acquired for data processing and analyses. After buying or renting barcode scanners and/or readers, the company starts collecting data and automatically feeding it to the system. All the recorded data is time-stamped and this helps to compile all kinds of reports.

Basic Features And Advantages

Most of these systems store the data in cloud-based databases where the administrator and any other permitted person can access it in real time. The gathered information is used to create reports for every phase or component of production. The comprehensive labor production report is used to produce workstation reports and manufactured products’ reports which are all part of the employee report. The employee report contains the production history of a specific worker including his job station, production line, and manufactured product(s). Error reports are also produced to showcase where hitches or bottlenecks occurred during production.

The main advantage of using this system is that it collects real-time data. This means that if it is connected to the internet, which is mostly the case, all the collected data and the generated reports can be viewed, queried, printed, and/or saved anytime from anywhere. To make the system more versatile, some administrators even allow offline data collection in batch mode.

Barcoding has taken the world by storm. It has literally revolutionized the business world. Barcodes are currently being used in every imaginable business undertaking and their popularity shows no sign of waning any time soon. From conventional or mainstream data collection in attendance management systems and business resources’ tracking and control to some unbelievably innovative applications in video games, nutrition and health, and even in advertising, barcodes have infinite demand in the business world.

The most basic and perhaps most important features in any barcoding system are the labeling and printing solutions. These are the building blocks or foundations of the entire data collection process. A typical barcoding system or solution consists of three main components, namely barcode printers and the labels and ribbons to be printed on, barcode scanners and readers, and the application software that “connects” all these. The nature of the data collection project dictates the type of hardware devices and barcoding programs to be used. For instance, an RFID (radio-frequency identification) tracking kit can be used to track assets while a tradeshow scanner will come in handy while processing attendees at an event. Among all the thousands of uses of barcoding equipment and software, there are three main business applications that have proven invaluable more than all the rest.

Event Attendance Tracking Solutions

This is an automated system that is used to control and track individuals in group or crowd settings or engagements. Attendance tracking solutions are used by institutions, companies, organizations, and even governments to monitor various attendance metrics, such as the time of arrival and departure for each individual, distribution of gender, age range, and many other statistical characteristics in the target group. Students, business employees, seminar and convention attendees, tradeshow visitors, film goers, and any other kind of crowd event uses these barcoding solutions to easily and accurately collect data on everyone in attendance. Printers are used to create barcodes, and scanners and readers are used to interpret and process the gathered information.

Inventory Control Systems

These are mostly designed to suit typical business settings. Inventory tracking systems are quite common in various business entities, especially retail outlets where all products are labeled with bar-coded markers. Extensive systems that combine barcoding scanners and readers and customized software are used to track movement of stock in the business. Customer purchases are deducted from available inventory and newly delivered stock is added to maintain an updated ledger — showing the movement of the company’s inventory over time.

Asset Tracking

This barcoding solution is especially popular among corporations and government organizations where capital assets are quite substantial. Asset tracking kits use special barcoding tools including scanners and customized programs to collect and analyze important data regarding a specific asset. A barcoding system is able to identify and match the asset’s number to its location and description. The system is also able to calculate the asset’s depreciation rate and even to produce some warranty information.

Custom Barcoding Solutions

Some barcoding solutions are specially designed to solve specific data collection needs. Some are quite simple but other custom systems can be quite complex and sophisticated. a few examples of such systems include barcode inspection kits for tracking equipment inspections, production management/labor reporting solutions for monitoring manufacturing processes, and package delivery systems for tracking the collection and delivery of packages and other equipment.

Necessity is the mother of invention. There is no denying the veracity of this ancient adage especially when you consider the livelihood of every life form on this planet. However when it comes to the business world, the following statement bears more contextual truth than the former. Competition is the mother of innovation. This unsavory business truth is especially evident in the technical world — more so the technological world. Aggressive competition among various industry stakeholders has led to the rapid evolution of various mechanical, information, and communications technologies in a very short span of time.

The barcoding industry is one such tech-oriented niche whose impressive growth in the last few decades is mostly credited to rapacious industry competition. There was rapid technological advancement in the Barcoding industry in the final quarter of the 20th century, which spurred the invention and development of first-rate data collection systems.

Nowadays, barcoding equipment and software is used in almost all aspects of business life including advertisement, entertainment, resource planning and management, crowd control, production optimization and so much more. Acquisition costs have also gone down due to an influx of many new players in this field. And to make matters even better, customers now have the option of either buying or renting/leasing barcoding solutions according to their personal or business preferences or needs. The following invaluable barcoding tools and solutions are now available for hire.

Barcode Readers/Scanners

Barcode readers and scanners are perhaps the most fundamental items in this industry. They are basically used to read, interpret, and record encrypted barcode data from specially printed labels and ribbons. Although the names are usually used interchangeably, barcode readers and scanners are supposed to have functional differences. Scanners are only able to read the data and then pass it to another system component like a tablet or PC for display and/or processing. On the other hand, readers are able to read, display, and process the data. Anyway, there are thousands of readers and scanners in the market today, ranging for small handheld devices like the simple tradeshow badge scanner to complex and sophisticated computing systems. They are usually categorized according to functionality from entry level, industrial, specialty and rugged — and these can either be wireless or corded. They are also classified according to the manufacturer or model like Honeywell, Intermec, Opticon, AML or CipherLab among many others. The point is, all these scanners and readers are currently available for direct purchase or rent from various dealers and resellers.

Barcode Printers

Hierarchically, printers should come before readers and scanners in barcoding because they are used before latter two. The basic process is that printers start the project by creating barcodes on labels, ribbons, and other identification markers. Barcoding scanners and readers are later brought in to identify and process these coded markers in line with specific data collection needs and processes. Barcode printers are also available for direct purchase and also for leasing or hiring. They are marketed according to manufacture or model too, and also by type, which includes industrial, desktop, portable etc.

Barcode Software

Barcoding equipment requires customized application software to perform the intended functions. A barcode printer requires special software like LabelWorks to create barcodes. In order to read and interpret the barcodes, scanners and readers are fitted with special optical gadgets and a suitable program. Barcoding software is used in all kinds of systems including inventory control, attendance tracking, and other specialized business processes. Many vendors and dealers now allow customers to rent or lease these customized barcoding programs.

Data science is one of the most rapidly-growing fields of study and areas of investment for businesses all over the globe. The term “data science” is a catch-all name for a broad set of disciplines that seek to utilize scientific methods and principles in order to extract insights about numbers. So, data science is a pretty broad and potentially important concept. It’s so important that many people believe it’s having an impact on the larger field of science as a whole.

You might not think of business owners as the most scientific people in society. But one thing that people do associate with business owners is the other crucial aspect of data science mentioned above: numbers. For business owners, numbers are the ultimate measure of a business’s status. Good ideas are great, but unless they can be implemented into an effective business structure that turns the ideas into results that can be measured by numbers, then the ideas have no value. That’s why barcode data and barcode software are so important to a business. And barcode software, thanks to the field of data science, has never been more powerful or accessible than it is today. Of course, nearly all big businesses that move significant numbers of products or services utilize barcode data and software. Increasingly, however, even small businesses are able to reap the benefits of barcode software, even on a temporary and trial basis through companies that offer barcode equipment rentals. But just what are the benefits of barcode software? Here is a look at some advantages.

More Data

Barcode software doesn’t just keep track of the barcode number. It is also able to keep track of a seemingly unlimited number of other aspects of the product’s description. Having data related to a product’s make, model and any other descriptive inputs a business can think of can allow the business to sort and analyze the barcode data through barcode software and glean insights. Essentially, more data doesn’t just mean more insights, it also means more specific insights that, when added together, bring tremendous value to a business. Beyond insights, another way that the increased data adds value is by increasing efficiency through eliminating the painstaking process that such data collection would have required prior to the latest software advances.

Database Access

The latest barcode software offers greater access in a number of different ways. For one, barcode software now offers nearly unlimited user access. In the past, barcode software was limited in the number of users that could access data at a given time. Now, all employees are able to access data and the insights that are available in the data. More people working with the data creates a positive feedback loop in which employees in the sample department and in different departments can build on each other’s data analysis and optimize performance and interconnectedness. In addition to more users being able to access data, the data that they’re accessing is more up-to-date than ever, and users of barcode software are able to access data in real time.

Interconnectedness

The interconnectedness within a business that data software can provide was mentioned above, but data also allows for greater interconnectedness between businesses. Business leaders can now glean insight into each step of the supply chain to identify strengths, weaknesses and solutions.

Barcodes seem like a simple invention. At first glance, they are one of the simplest inventions that one could think of, just a series of black and white lines and spaces arranged on a two-dimensional surface. To stop and think about the history of the barcode, though, is to realize that barcodes have proven over the course of time to be one of the most significant and ubiquitous inventions of the last century. Barcodes have changed the way the economy works by allowing businesses to better track the movement of their products throughout the marketplace. From barcode scanners to barcode software, there are entire industries around products that simply allow businesses and individuals to more easily work with barcodes and improve the efficiency of their operations.

With the rise in what’s possible with data science and data analytics, a surge that means the information provided by barcodes is more valuable than ever before, barcodes are poised for even greater importance in the future. All of that importance aside, however, there is a lighter side to the little black-and-white matrix that has come to symbolize our culture of commerce. The history of the barcode is full of fun facts as well as important milestones. Here is a look at some of the more in-depth, interesting and informative episodes in the history of barcodes.

The First Barcode Design

Everyone is familiar with the black and white stripes of a barcode. Despite the simplicity of the design—or maybe because of it—the barcode has become a cultural icon. The plain lined and spaced barcode is frequently used by artists, and there is even a whole museum dedicated to barcode art. All these barcode representations in our culture make it hard to imagine the barcode looking any different than it does today. In fact, the original barcode design was something altogether different: a bulls-eye! That’s right, instead of a rectangle of parallel black-and-white lines, the first barcode was a bulls-eye. Imagine a bulls-eye logo on every container in the supermarket and every tag on clothing. The first bulls-eye-shaped barcode was patented in the 1940s by two guys who were looking for a solution to grocery store checkout lines. They definitely hit the bulls-eye—just not with the design.

The First Barcoded Products

While many barcode pioneers were thinking about supermarket checkout lines, the first use of the barcode was actually on railroad cars. The first actual use of the barcode was to keep track of railroad cars, which makes sense if you think about crowded railway stations and lots full of train cars that all look the same. Of course, most people didn’t become familiar with the barcode until it became a supermarket standard, but WWII-era railroad workers had the jump on seeing and working with barcodes. The first UPC code—the code used by most barcodes today—wasn’t used until 1974 on a pack of chewing gum.

A Barcode Video Game?

It might not seem like fun compared with the realistic graphics and virtual reality involved in today’s video games, but there was once a very popular barcode video game. Players could scan any barcodes they saw and face different monsters and challenges that changed based on the barcode. The game was particularly popular in Japan. Who knew?