Barcoding 101

Barcoding, a form of keyless data entry facilitating automatic identifcation and data collection. Barcoding and related technologies have been used in manufacturing compaies for shipping and receiving operations for more than 40 years. Now barcoding has spread throughout the enterprise to include warehousing, accounting and customer service functions, time and attendance, and package delivery, as well as the assembly line operation iteself.

​In all these applications, the motivation to begin barcoding is the same: improve data management and accessibility and reduce costs. Today, many manual data entry tasks have been replaced by barcoding.

Improved data is the single most common motviation for implementing a barcode soution. Often the backbone of operations, data entry enables a company to produce accurate reports and predictions about future needs and actions. With data entry playing such a critical role in a company's operations, it is important to identify the extent to which data entry errors are tolerated.

Companies with integrated barcoding systems that enable users to scan barcodes rather than type numbers are commonly achieving 99 percent data accuracy. Barcoding is the most cost-effective tool that these organisations have to ensure data credibility and thereby greatly reduce the impact of human error.

Barcoding only generates a profit when supported by improved processes. When considering barcode implementation, every possible process improvement should be evaluated. The initial cost savings companies discover after implementating an barcode solution include labour cost reduction, improved customer service and supplier reponse times, better capital and inventory management, more efficient space mangagement and lower equipment costs.

In addition to apparent savings, each of these areas also produces several hidden savings that must be considered during the cost analysis, though the answers may not surface until the implementation is complete.
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Contact The RIC Group to talk further on barcoding.