I personally know of a company that has product list that stretches to more than twenty pages. It has six warehouses in one complex and about six more satellite storage facilities in different parts of the city. What makes the firm worthy of mention is that until now, it is yet to start using a Bar Code Verification Equipment. As a result of its primitive system, salespeople are often caught in situations wherein they confirm the adequacy of their supplies to customers, only to find out that they have been mistaken. Why did that happen? Well, their inventory list is always a few days delayed because of the number of trucks and deliveries that are made every day. Updating the list becomes very tedious as stocks are depleted daily and new supplies come in (from time to time). If only they had a Bar Code Verifier, their sales people would not have wasted precious time trying to sell items which are out of stock.
A bar code verification system works in a way wherein supplies are assigned unique bar codes that are printed or attached in the packaging or, if possible, the product themselves. As products move into certain points such as warehouse entry and exit doors, they are scanned and data automatically goes into a computer. Such a system allows people to know many things such as how much of every item are currently inside their warehouses. This solves companies several man hours that normally would have been devoted in counting the actual number of goods in their warehouse.
Other than that, a bar code system also allows companies to track the location of their products. If you are a company, big or small, that has a number of products in terms of type and/or quantity, I strongly suggest that you seriously study bar coding.
