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Edinburgh Rugby have realised that they can make access to their games quick and simple using barcodes.
The rugby club have just introduced a new ‘print your match ticket at home’ system, which lets supports print their own ticket which features two unique barcodes. These barcodes can then be scanned at the turnstiles and entrance to the game is thus made quick and simple.
Everyone has seen a barcode on a product they have purchased. They are a set of thick and thin black parallel lines with a set of numbers beneath them.
Barcodes are used as a way of attaching some form of data to an item without the need for the information to be printed on the item. The barcode’s lines are read by an optical machine and this information can be referenced against a database which contains information about that particular item. When they were first introduced barcodes were just a set of parallel lines, they are now however available in a range of formats made up of dots, hexagons and even rectangles.
If you run a small business you can instantly make your business more efficient by using barcode labels and asset tags.
If you are fed up with human error causing havoc to your stock taking processes and are searching for an easy way to gain accurate stock identification results, then you should take a look at barcode labels.
Barcode labels give accurate results
It seems that barcodes are getting more attention than ever if a recent news release is anything to go by.
It has been reported that eBay app RedLaser, the iPhone barcode scanning app, has now been downloaded more than two million times in the UK. The app lets iPhone users, and Android users, scan barcodes, QR codes and UPC codes so they can get the best deals while shopping.
We are all familiar with that barcodes that appear on just about every item that we buy. But barcodes aren’t just confined to being used on goods or produce; they are also used in many other innovative ways.
A banana plantation owner from Western Australia has just started to barcode her banana trees so that she can keep a digital record of her fruit. Darrell Munro from Munro’s Plantation in Carnarvon says:
Many factories are now embracing barcode and asset tagging technology as it gives them a competitive edge when they are looking to improve efficiencies.
Barcode technology has been in use for decades, but in this time it has mainly been used by retail establishments to provide a unique code to identify products. This unique labelling has been taken a step further in recent years however and barcodes are now being used on a variety of other items as well as standard good’s packaging.
A barcode is a vertical arrangement of lines of different widths which can be analysed by a barcode reading device and a unique code obtained. This code can then be referenced with a database which holds information about this code, so information pertaining to the item on which the barcode is printed can be updated.
Removes human error
Using barcode labels instantly improves accuracy. People make errors, whilst barcode scanning technology does not.
Data collection is extremely important for most businesses nowadays as money is often tight. And when data is handled accurately and efficiently the management of the cash flow though a business is also handled in this professional manner.
Data collection technology has moved on leaps and bounds over the last few years and where once a person would perhaps have had to manually do a stock take of all the items that were in their possession, they can now simply scan the barcode of an item to check stock levels.
Barcode technology has moved forward dramatically over the last few years. There are now a host of different barcode reading scanners available, which can all read barcodes and analyse the information within the barcode itself.
Some of the different types of barcode readers now available include:
• Pen barcode scanners – These barcode scanners usually contain a photodiode which is fixed at the end of a pen-like device. The photodiode is passed across the length of the barcode and the bars and spaces are read and interpreted by the scanner.
In the last article we described how the method of using barcode labels is preferable to jotting down the items people buy in a shop, especially for larger stores. It would be almost impossible to keep track of what is being sold and what stock is in at any given time otherwise.