Key Takeaways
Learn how barcodes work, their use cases, and how they can improve operations. Determine the best type of code, marking methods, and readers for your specific needs.
What is a barcode?
A barcode is a machine-readable, encoded pattern comprised of vertical lines, dots, or squares that conveys information. Barcodes share data about products, parts, packages, equipment, and storage locations. They track items throughout a supply chain and trace how, when, and where parts were manufactured.
Barcodes are machine-readable patterns that share essential data about products, parts, packages, equipment, and storage locations in industrial and logistics settings.
What do barcodes do?
Barcodes connect objects and information through tracking and tracing. Barcodes can also access information about industrial and logistics equipment, shelves, and storage locations.
- Tracking collects and monitors item movement, shipment, and storage data.
- Tracing gathers data throughout a manufacturing process, documenting information such as the stage of manufacturing, vendors, and what processes they performed, and material origin.
Tracking monitors item movement data.
Tracing gathers data throughout the manufacturing process.
What are the benefits of using barcode systems?
Scanning or reading barcodes automates manual data entry, which is time-consuming, error-prone, and imperfect. Barcodes increase the amount of data that can be collected – such as an item’s creation date, handling instructions, and lot code – and how easily employees, networks, companies, and equipment share that information.
Amplifying the amount of data a business collects and making that data more accessible has numerous benefits:
Actionable operational intelligence
Barcode systems identify when and where delays, inefficiencies, or damage occur. Scanning items during a manufacturing or logistics process can reveal if a particular stage or manufacturing site produces more issues or ships products more slowly.
Optimized inventory management
Tracking an item’s movement and its location in a facility can yield valuable insights and opportunities for efficiency, like maintaining accurate inventory levels, verifying shipment contents, and reducing stock and overhead costs. Minimizing the time between an order placement and delivery is essential in logistics, e-commerce, and manufacturing.
Barcodes help identify where manufacturing inefficiencies happen.
Tracking items help maintain accurate inventory and increase efficiency.
Improved quality control
Tracing an issue to its source is critical to mitigating costs when an item is damaged, lost, contaminated, or misidentified. Barcodes can identify the equipment that caused the problem, quickly find products that need to be recalled, and figure out where the issue occurred on a manufacturing or logistics line.
Ensure compliance
Depending on the industry, companies may be required to keep detailed electronic records and written procedures, verify that materials come from an approved supplier, and display allergen and expiration dates. Barcodes help companies comply with various industry standards by tracking expiration dates and controlled substances, identifying products, and providing lot genealogy information.