Using Barcodes and Readers
Barcodes have obvious uses and less obvious ones. In general they are useful wherever you need to encode
a fairly compact quantity of information and read it quickly and automatically. Wireless scanners can enable
you to do this without having a computer nearby.
Clients of ours have used barcode readers for the following purposes:
Warehouse Management
Barcodes are fixed to items. Printers exist that can make these labels very
durable if necessary. Movement in out and around the warehouse can be tracked by scanning using wireless scanners.
Entry Cards
Barcodes are printed on cards carried by staff or customers/members and scanned to register them entering a
building or to allow them access. Staff or customer records can be quickly identified at service points by scanning
the card.
Product Scanning
As in a supermarket, products are labelled with barcodes to identify them when sold.
Labels can be generated on receiving items into stock, or possibly if the item comes barcoded and the supplier's
codes are known, these can be scanned.
Many other possible uses for barcodes exist such as:
Form Processing
Forms which have serial numbers could have these encoded as barcodes so that the number can
be scanned accurately and correctly on processing of the form.
Order Fulfillment
An order list could have order serial numbers on it. The member of staff scans the order
number and then the items required as they are picked. The scanner can feedback via a bleep that the order has
been correctly fulfilled.
Links for Further Information
General information on barcodes
Recommended UK source for equipment
|