Industries Where Barcode Scanners Are Used?

Published by - OP Team on April 30, 2019     Blog

The data automation industry has reached new heights and is rapidly evolving. New technology is bringing in more ways to innovate and improve businesses. Point of sale systems are now first choice of any business be it small, medium, or a large sized business. We, as customers, have seen point of sale systems in work usually at the checkout counter of retail stores, shopping markets, or a mall. Helping us to get moving in the queue quickly and pay for our transaction.

Point of Sale systems comprise of numerous hardware that come together to work in unison. These components include barcode scanner, PC terminal, cash register, cash drawer, credit or debit card reader, etc. The most noticeable hardware in the POS system is the barcode scanner with its red laser beam scanning products quickly one after another and sending product’s data into the system. Barcode scanners have come a long way since their invention and today have become the most popular and most used piece of hardware.

Barcode scanners are used across many industries to keep their business in order. Without them buying simple groceries would take the toll on your patience, managing inventory would become a herculean task and supermarkets would often run out of stock for important products. But, with barcode scanners management and organization has become easier.

What Are Barcodes?

The idea for modern Barcode system originated back in 1948. When the question ‘how to automatically read product information?’ arose several experiments were conducted to find various potential solutions. The initial invention included use of Morse code, thus, giving rise to ‘Linear barcode system.’ Later, the linear system was replaced by circular rings and was known as ‘Bulls-eye system.’ Technological advances brought innovations in barcode scanners and, in 1973, barcode developed by George Laurer was widely accepted for its simplicity and power to hold more information.

Barcode is of two types – Linear and 2D. Most of the products have a linear barcode and is easy to recognize visually. It consists of two parts – the vertical black and white stripes (barcode) and a 12 digit UPC number. A 2D barcode can hold more information like image, price, quantity, web link, etc. unlike Linear which holds only text information.

A barcode scanner produces results through the combined working of three parts including the illumination system, the sensor, and the decoder. While scanning, the red light illuminates the stripes of barcode and the sensor generates an analog signal which is further sent to the decoder. The decoder verifies the check digit and produces text results which includes the information about the product.

Barcode scanners are used widely across different fields. Here are some major industries where a barcode scanner is a crucial part of their business:

Big Box Retailers

A big-box store is exactly what the name says – it is BIG! Usually located in a huge building with thousands and thousands of products stacked according to their respective departments at various places in the building the big-box store definitely uses barcodes. You can spot the barcode on each and every product. Barcodes have essentially changed the way the big-box retailers function. Being organized in the huge place with thousands of products is impossible but barcodes have made this possible through their simple organizational features.

One live example of a huge and successful big-box retailer is Wal-Mart – the behemoth of shopping. Barcodes completely transformed Wal-Mart’s supply chain. With the use of barcodes the company kept communicating with its suppliers and vendors constantly to produce and deliver the goods as fast as possible to meet the consumer’s demand. This not only changed Wal-Mart’s relationship with its manufacturers but also helped to offer products to their customers on time and at affordable rates.

Barcodes have essentially helped the big retailers to organize their inventories in most creative and effective ways. Amazon uses ‘chaotic storage’ method to organize their inventory. What they do is they stack the products wherever shelf space is empty. That means, they don’t have dedicated areas for particular products. Then how do they keep themselves organized? By using Barcodes. They use barcodes to locate where a particular product is exactly located in the shelf.

Online Home Businesses

As mentioned earlier, doesn’t matter if your business is small or large or falls in between, barcode scanner serves everyone. Small businesses like online home businesses or Etsy stores regularly use barcode scanners for their products. A barcode printer can print smaller labels and barcodes according to your product size and requirement. This way small businesses can keep track of each manufactured product and be aware of what lies where. There’s often staff shortage at small businesses and one person cannot handle inventory management as well as satisfying customers. This is where a barcode scanner gets half the work done efficiently and allows you to concentrate on providing better services to the customers.

Healthcare

Healthcare is one of the largest industry where organization and inventory management is as important as any other thing. Barcodes help in inventory tracking of medications, surgical instruments, etc. which are vital equipment in the healthcare industry. Barcodes are also used to print patient labels in order to keep track of the patient’s identity and recovery. It is also used to grant permission to visitors in the hospital.

One important reason for the rise of use of barcodes in healthcare is they reduce errors significantly. Errors cannot be afforded in healthcare as it might lead to someone losing their life. Manual errors can occur often but not barcodes. Doctors can keep track of a patient’s medication using the wristband barcodes. They can also make sure that the patient is getting proper and required treatment. This also helps the doctors to check if the medicine the patient is taking is in stock or not.

Schools And Government Organizations

Schools have a fixed number of assets like laptops, tablets, laboratory equipment, textbooks, library books, etc. which are purchased through grants. Keeping a proper account of all these assets helps the school secure more grants and improve facilities for their students. Manual counting of assets can lead to errors and even a small error can cause huge loss for the school. Therefore, instead of depending upon human counting barcodes help schools to identify and keep track of each of the assets without losing them. This helps schools to keep the assets safe as well as well accounted so that when the time comes they can pull the data and present in the summer audits without losing time.

For Governmental organizations like law enforcement, military, fire department, or emergency services barcodes play a vital role. All these organizations use variety of tools and assets that are purchased using tax money and, therefore, they need to keep a proper account of all the purchases and proper track of all the tools. Barcodes can keep the track of who checked-out which instrument when. This in turn benefits the officer, soldier, firefighter to get the tool they need at proper time and place.

Proper accounting for each tool also avoids any chances of controversies. People will be more convinced that their money is being used where it is supposed to be used.

Sports And Entertainment

Professional sports require numerous assets that are costly and need to be kept eye on. Each team has a set of equipment managed by the assigned people. Even one of these assets go missing the team can lose a hell lot of money. There are boxes of sports jerseys, shoes, bats and balls, and much more. Keeping all these equipment organized using a barcode helps to find, track, and use them when needed – that is, on the game day.

Barcodes have literally changed the way each industry works. They have introduced error free environment with proper organizational capabilities. No retail store worries about running out of stock. With use of proper barcode scanner the checkout process has become faster and customers get to exit the shop quickly (not in a negative but in a satisfied way). You no longer have to worry about missing a product or an equipment which is costly as your investment in barcodes and barcode scanner will save you from losing money or any customers.