5 Tips for Inventory Management with Barcode Scanning — Katana

What are barcodes?

Barcodes are a method of visually representing data in a machine-readable form to quickly identify items and track inventory.

However, inventory management with barcode scanning isn’t just for tracking products, it also allows you to implement them:

• In your storefronts as part of the purchase process
• In warehouses to track inventory or assign materials to an operation
• In your e-commerce, such as Shopify inventory
• Within your shipping process
• On invoices to assist in accounting

Traditionally, a barcode came in the form of a square or rectangular print containing a series of vertical and parallel black lines and white spaces of different widths. Once scanned, they translate and relay information to the user.

Barcodes come in two different forms:

• 1-dimensional (1D)
• 2-dimensional (2D), for example, QR codes

But what exactly is the difference between the popular choices of these two types of barcodes?

The different types of barcodes

There are many different barcode types, different in visual as well as what kind of information they store and what their main use cases are.

One-dimensional (1D) barcode types

A 1D barcode is a sequence of vertical bars and spaces of varying widths used to represent a set of characters and store a limited amount of information.

EAN-8/EAN-13 and UPC-A/UPC-E

This is the international barcode standard for retail products. The code can be registered with GS1 (Global standard organization). GS1 assigns a dedicated company code that will be globally recognized.

They are mostly used on goods that a company is selling – in order to get a unique barcode for a specific item. GS1 will make sure the company code is unique and all the products can be traced back to their origin.

CODE 128/GS1 – 128

This code can hold more numbers. CS1 128 can also be registered with GS1, but the applications are broader for this code type. CODE 128 is widely used when items, processes, or activities are tracked internally, and its uniqueness is essential.

Some of the examples in which these codes can be used include:

• Identification of items internally
• Identification of batch numbers
• Identification of serial numbers
• Identification of resources
• Identification of operations
• Identification of the location of goods

In these cases, the barcode numbers should be generated so that they are always unique throughout the company – that’s why it’s important to find an MRP software that can perform this task.

Two-dimensional (2D) barcode types

Data Matrix and QR code – these are the most common 2D barcode types.

2D barcodes can hold far more information than 1D barcodes. For example, if there is a need to direct a user to a specific URL to see a Document or share contact details in a machine-readable way, then these are the best options.

In general, 1D codes can be considered the better choice when identifying something and 2D barcodes are better at sharing information.

Scanning a 1D code is usually considered faster, though the technology is catching up fast for 2D codes as well. The benefit of 2D codes is that all modern smartphones have built-in functionality in their camera app to recognize QR codes.

The benefits of barcodes for inventory control

Now you know everything about barcodes, so much so you can probably hear your own heartbeat, and it sounds like the beep of items being scanned at your favorite store.

So, let’s get to the exciting parts, the benefits of implementing inventory management with barcode scanning.

When you start taking advantage of barcodes, you can expect the following upsides.

Reduced chance for human error

At the end of the day, using barcodes to process data is going to be far more accurate than inventory data entered manually.

As awesome as humans can get, we all make mistakes.

A typo here, or any other type of error there.

Barcodes remove the chance for human error and even reduce the need for training new staff since when taking inventory, all they need to do is point and click.

Readily available data

This ties in with the previous point, computers tend to have the edge on us when it comes to speedily reading and storing information.

Using barcodes for inventory control, you can take advantage of data being immediately available, including:

• Processing speed
• Information on inventory levels
• Sales being available in real-time