Barcodes are literally everywhere you go! As of today, they have successfully made their stronghold in the inventory and supply chain management domain. This small imprint of bars & spaces has developed astounding opportunities for businesses to track or gather information.

Whether to check when the package is about to be delivered at the given address or to track the transit temperature, barcodes have changed the way businesses keep track of their inventory or supply chain information.

Barcodes are machine-readable numeral or character representations meant to track the products with utmost accuracy. Upon using the barcodes for inventory and supply chain management, you can expect better information occurrence, cost-effectiveness, and better transparency in the entire process.

So, let’s take this article forward and get you a clear insight into the efficacies of barcoding in the business world, especially for managing your inventory and keeping track of the supply chain.

A] How Does Barcoding Work?

A barcode is a machine-specific representation of encoded information for the scanner to read it. The combination of white and black bars has encoded text characters that use a pre-set algorithm for the specific barcode.

There are two different types of barcodes, which includes:

1. One-dimensional barcode

The one-dimensional barcodes are considered the series of black & white bars, which consist of information such as product size, colour and type. You will mostly find such barcodes over the UPCs (Universe Product Codes) placed over the packaging of a product. This code is helpful in tracking the packages when they are sent out for delivery through service providers such as FedEx or UPS. 

2. Two-dimensional barcode

The two-dimensional barcodes are considered a bit more complex than that of the one-dimensional counterparts. These codes consist of information more than just the usual texts and might deliver information such as price, product image and inventory level. There are different types of scanners available in the market for validating 2D barcodes.

The one-dimensional barcodes in the modern era are being read with the use of a laser scanner. A dedicated scanner is pointed at the barcode, and a laser ray is emitted to detect the specific pattern. And there are specific 2D barcode imagers available to scan those complex codes.

Pixelwise Technology Pvt. Ltd. is the company that provides you with the device to support an offline barcode verification tool that detects both one-dimensional and two-dimensional barcodes. We understand the need for accuracy with barcode scanning and validation, for which our products are top-notch in terms of their working efficiency. 

Our offline barcode verification with a transport device will check every code that’s printed on a specific carton and will reject all the unreadable codes. This device comes with a CRS (Code Reading Sensor), which is responsible for validating the barcodes on cartons, alongside an alarm that goes off when the device detects any faulty code. 

There are a plethora of sensors and functional features to make barcode scanning more efficient with the use of this tool. In the end, this tool will also help produce a detailed report on the products that were scanned through it.

B] Benefits of Barcoding in Supply Chain Management

To help you better understand the efficacies of barcoding in supply chain management, here are some of its benefits for you to count on:

• Improved Accuracy

Making mistakes in supply chain management can turn around to cause an expensive loss. Therefore, optimal barcode scanning can help you eliminate the presence of redundant information and correct the errors in real time.

In case the package is damaged or the given barcode label is tampered with, there are solutions for using only limited data for completing major transactions. Barcodes automate the data entry process, which eliminates the chance of human errors due to manual processes.

As you can use your mobile phones or dedicated scanners for validating the barcodes, you won’t have to enter the product IDs character-by-character. Thus, it will streamline the overall process.

• Enhanced Efficiency

Barcode scanners enable you to quickly approach the process of validating a product’s details. This shall reduce the overall time or effort you implemented by engaging your workforce to do the job. 

Thus, this is what boosts the rate of productivity and efficiency within your supply chain management process. You will have better visibility over all the products in your supply chain, making it easy for you to trace the products and manage the recalls.

You will also get real-time visibility of your inventory, and managing logistics will be quite easier and more effective with barcodes in place. It is one of the most crucial components to adapt for managing your supply chain. 

• Real-Time Tracking

With the use of barcoding technology, you will have a better insight into your inventory and stored assets. Thus, it will help you run your business quite efficiently. All the facilities have the liberty to make use of barcodes for keeping real-time track of their inventory and materials that enter or exit the premises. 

All that needs to be done is a barcode label being attached to the inventory goods. Then, you will be able to track the assets in real time within the supply chain management.

This shall help you confirm the deliveries, enable recalls, minimise loss or shrinkage and confirm the deliveries. Barcoding in supply chain management supports you with the implementation of accurate and timely information for operating more efficiently. 

• Reduced Labour Costs

With barcodes in practice for supply chain management, the companies don’t have to bear the cost of managing too many labourers. It is one of the evident cost-saving factors that has increased the demand for barcodes in the industry. 

Barcoding technology is completely automated and requires little or no human support. On the other hand, as labour costs are continually increasing within the industry, supply chain management by humans is turning out to be very expensive. Therefore, some aspects of managing supply chains can be automated. 

Hence, the barcoding technology was brought into action! The scanners being used for validating these codes are also affordable today because this technology is now widely available. Moreover, attaching the label itself will cost you a very minimal amount.

• Error Reduction

The barcode scanners are meant to eliminate the risk associated with human data entry jobs. Some human errors can turn out to be expensive mistakes, such as misplaced inventory or processing incorrect order shipments. 

Therefore, data collection is automated with the use of barcode technology, which has proven effective in reducing errors. Moreover, this also improves order accuracy, which leads to increased satisfaction levels of the customers.

C] Benefits of Barcoding in Inventory Management

Some of the advantages of barcode technology in the inventory management domain are:

• Inventory Accuracy

The use of barcodes enables you to collect your inventory data faster and more accurately. It is an automated process where a handheld scanner is used for transferring the information from the barcode to the ERP system. Using this technology helps you eliminate the risk of duplicate data or additional keystrokes, which eradicates errors and reduces labour costs.

• Streamlining Receiving and Shipping

The inventory items with a unique label or barcode will enable you to easily receive or ship them to complete your business orders. Adding information to the specific products in your inventory and recalling the same is easier with just one scan of the barcode. 

• Faster Audits and Stocktaking

Alongside accurate order shipping or processing, the barcoding system will take the pain out of your tedious or dreaded inventory counts every year. With the use of barcodes, it is quite easier to count the inventory cycle for a few products annually in specific period intervals. Maintaining cycle counts enables you to keep the inventory up-to-date and accurate. 

• Data Analytics and Decision-Making

The data collected from the barcode scanning can be transferred to the cloud server or to the host computer instantly after the code is validated. All the stakeholders within the logistics or supply chain, from executives to managers and even the customers, will be able to see the journey of a shipment in real time. With such data, you will be able to make decisions immediately to fix any loopholes. 

• Minimised Stockouts and Overstocking

Scanning the barcodes enables you to keep track of the inventory levels for specific products as well. With this, you will be able to take note of when your demanding products are about to run out of stock. Following that, you will also be able to stop the supply from manufacturers or vendors for a product that’s already available in abundance.

Conclusion 

These are the few benefits associated with the use of barcoding technology in supply chain and inventory management. If you want your business to be more efficient and save you some of your operational costs, count on implementing a barcoding system in your facility. 

If you need any kind of help in the process, connect with our team at Precision Cutting Systems Pvt. Ltd., and we shall let you know the importance of barcodes. Once convinced, you can try our offline barcode scanning for transport devices to improve your service or product delivery aspects. Contact us today to know more!