Barcoding

Barcodes and barcode development

A barcode is an automatic identification technology. It presents a certain amount of data in a form that allows a machine such as a scanner to very rapidly read and relay the information that it holds.

One should not, as in the case with RFID-technology, overestimate the amount of data a barcode can hold, as the information is usually only a few characters long and points to more detail that exists elsewhere. As an example – the barcode on your cereal box does not have any information on price or product description, it is merely a collection of numbers that is different from all the other products on the shelf. By scanning the code, the retailer’s system looks for the codes it scanned against information in its database, which will contain a description and a price, and it will then display that on the checkout till.

TrenStar - barcoding specialists

Long before the barcoded cereal box lands on your breakfast table it was transported as unrefined grains from the farmer. If this was done in a TrenStar container, the farmer would have scanned the barcode on the container, to signal to TrenStar’s web-enabled Container Management (TrenStarCM) system that it is being sent. Every single container in TrenStar’s international network is individually barcoded and can therefore be tracked from first use to final disposal.

In the same way as the farmer, the cereal manufacturer would have moved the flakes in one of TrenStar’s Alpal-containers, while also scanning its barcode to feed the information to the TrenStar CM. TrenStar would in turn use the barcode information to link the container to its contents, if requested, and to indicate to the cereal manufacturer’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system what it has on site, what is in transit and what has arrived at different sites or suppliers.

The information on the barcode, and now also on the remotely accessible RFID-tags on TrenStar’s containers, is the key to TrenStar’s unique value proposition. This little identifier allows TrenStar and its customers to track and trace any product or its container. By scanning it (and you can learn more about our scanners here), the client can view web-accessible reports such as:

• On-site exception reports;
• Movement reports;
• Stock holding reports;
• Master control summaries;
• Supplier performance reports; and many other.

TrenStar has also ensured that all its tags, whether RFID-enabled, engraved metal plates, temperature sensitive stickers (such as is used in medical applications) or even cheap sticker-types are also human readable, which allows for easy identification (of its code and type) in times when the scanner is out of reach.

Helping you to develop barcodes

TrenStar’s technical teams have many years’ experience in barcode development, design, printing and of course the use of the information that the barcode holds. In one instance, TrenStar designed a unique and barcode generation system for a major automotive company to relay information that ranged from the Kanban-number, to the product description, its purpose and the link to its batch number and even its weight.

Through its partnership with its affiliate Roan Systems, TrenStar can also offer the specialised printers, scanners and barcode reading systems that would give life to a specialised barcode system such as the one described above. This unique partnership also allows TrenStar to link modern RFID-systems with the barcodes and the information that they hold.

Learn more about how barcodes have become asset manager’s best friends through TrenStar’s unique Fixed Asset Management (FAM) system, click here.