ABSTRACT

BARCODE is a method of automatic identification & data collection, also known as the Universal Product Code (UPC). BARCODE is use the Binary System for coding & decoding. It has the series of bars & space representing alpha numeric information. Each bar represent 1 &space represent 0.

INTRODUCTION
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows certain data on certain products. Originally, barcodes represented data in the widths (lines) and the spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1D (1 dimensional) barcodes or symbologies. They also come in patterns of squares, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns within images termed 2D (2 dimensional) matrix codes or symbologies. Although 2D systems use symbols other than bars, they are generally referred to as barcodes as well. Barcodes can be read by optical scanners called barcode readers, or scanned from an image by special software.

Working/principle
The last digit of the UPC code is called a check digit.

FIGURE [3]

1. Add together the value of all of the digits in odd positions (digits 1, 3,
0 + 5 + 7 + 1 + 4 + 2 = 19

5, 7, 9 and 11).

2. Multiply that number by 3.

19 * 3 = 57

3. Add together the value of all of the digits in even positions (digits 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10).
7 + 6 + 8 + 6 + 1 = 28

4. Add this sum to the value in step 2.

57 + 28 = 85

5. Take the number in Step 4. To create the check digit, determine the number that, when added to the
number in step 4, is a multiple of 10. 85 + 5 = 90 The check digit is therefore 5

TYPES OF BARCODE
Universal Product Code(UPC) and European Article Number (EAN) in general are the two types of bar codes. Grocery industry formally established UPC as the standard bar code symbology for product marking. There are five versions of UPC & two versions of EAN code. The valid characters are 0,1,2.9. Out of five versions of UPC code two versions namely UPC-A and UPC-E are widely used. Other three versions namely UPC-B, UPC-C and UPC-D are not in wide use. Two versions of EAN are EAN-13 and EAN-8.

ADVANTAGES OF BARCODE :
In point-of-sale management, the use of barcodes can provide very detailed up-to-date information on key aspects of the business, enabling decisions to be made much more quickly and with more confidence. For example:

Fast-selling items can be identified quickly and automatically reordered to meet consumer demand, Slow-selling items can be identified, preventing a build-up of unwanted stock, The effects of repositioning a given product within a store can be monitored, allowing fast-moving more profitable items to occupy the best space, Historical data can be used to predict seasonal fluctuations very accurately. Items may be repriced on the shelf to reflect both sale prices and price increases.

 When a manufacturer packs a box with any given item, a Unique Identifying Number (UID) can be
assigned to the box.

A relational database can be created to relate the UID to relevant information about the box; such as order number, items packed, qty packed, final destination, etc.

DISADVANTAGES OF BARCODE
Source of additional cost -- The only disadvantage is that data is coded in the barcode. This can be an additional cost. However the key to an effective barcode system is to generate the barcode as cost to the source of the data as possible.

APPLICATIONS OF BARCODE :
The major applications are Retail Manufacturing Quality control Packing Ware housing Service industry such as Courier Industry, Hospital and Library Management Export Industry

Reference
http://www.managementsupport.com/barcode.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/barcode http://www.satoeurope.com/en/about/barcode.html