Happy Birthday, Dear Barcode: Looking Good for 38!

On this exact day, in 1974, the humble barcode made its first appearance – at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio as part of a test run where a barcode was scanned on a pack of gum. (You can see the actual receipt and the gum on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC! Family road trip, anyone?)

You've come a long way, barcode baby, since that day – moving from retail into the backend of the food business, where warehouse and plant floor activities have gotten a whole lot easier with the use of the UPC (universal product code) as the barcode is also known.

JF Floor for Handheld Scanners

Barcoding is so important to our industry we offer the mobile interface module, JF Floor – an extension of all the functionalities of the JustFoodERP system – that gives warehouse and shop floor workers the ability to use handheld scanners (or any other portable device that accesses a browser running over a wireless network) to improve:

• Inventory accuracy: Pick, ship, receive, put-away, move and count inventory with a greater degree of precision – all from out on the warehouse floor.
• Timely transactions: Receive raw materials, consume and output production, and print barcode labels when and where you need to.

• Traceability: The ability to do transactions using JF Floor improves the transaction accuracy, which contributes to the product recall process.
• Configurable interface that can be tailored to your business and to your users, via pre-defined screens within the ERP system.
• Compatibility with both the Classic client and RTC versions of the JustFoodERP system.

The AIDC Market Grows

Like most technologies, AIDC (automatic identification and data collection) doesn’t stand still – and today we are seeing the use of RFID (radio frequency ID) tags and QR (quick response) codes being used in the food industry. QR codes could be the next iteration of barcoding in the food industry – once employees on the warehouse and shop floor are using smart phones instead of barcode scanners to read inventory, that is. I recently blogged about Why QR Codes are Scan-tastic.

Where do you see the scanning world going next for the food industry? How are you and your work colleagues celebrating the barcode’s 38 birthday? (I tried, but failed, to get the day off work today to celebrate this historic occasion ;)  Leave your comments below!

Mike Glue

Mike Glue is the Chief Architect of JustFoodERP. He is responsible for the delivery of new JustFoodERP functionality, and keeping up with the latest, greatest Microsoft platforms. He is the company's top nerd who likes to hit it out of the park. (Oh yeah, and an avid baseball fan!) He can be reached at mike.glue@justfooderp.com.