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Definition & principles

Barcode systems are more and more common. They touch various fields of the life. They are easy to use. In addition to their reliability, they allow you to enter the data faster than manual methods. Thanks to their reliability and quick use, they enable us to improve several operations such as: manufacturing, forwarding, reception and packing, preparation of orders, inventory, file management ….

Barcodes are found in supermarkets, libraries, banks of blood, factories, loading bridges. They are used with Barcodes Reading Devices, whether manually or automatically. The term barcodes is used to describe a broad mix of encoding data technics, read through optical machines.

In short, the barcode is an optical system of coding. Its numbers and letters are symbolized through bars and rectangular spaces having different widths.

Barcodes were primarily developed for stock controls. Libraries of England were the first to use them for an easy and reliable follow-up of their huge number of volumes. Their use in commerce started in 1970 with reading grocers' packages. UPC code, or “Universal Product Code “ quickly appeared on hypermarkets' articles. At the same time, in industry, and in order to identify products , production and stocks control, barcodes have become frequently used.

A code, what for?

Nowadays, barcodes are discrete actors of the current life .They find out their applications in various fields. We find them in supermarkets, libraries, blood banks, factories, loading bridges .
Undoubtedly, barcodes make the management in various fields faster and efficient.

1- For consumers:
- Reduction of the queues at checkouts
- Printing of the name and the item's price on the sales slip
- Make the consumers feel confident by the disappearance of error risks

2- For stock management:
- Control of immediate inventory list
- Optimized stocks
- Automated process of orders
- Simplified orders

3- For stores:
- Simplified checkouts process
- Optimizing the surface of the departments according to their performances
- Recoding without facing price problems changes
- Improved management through a permenant knowledge of the sales and the inventories, item by item
- Reduction of marking costs

4- For purchase:
- Immediate availability of statistics on providers and items
- Control of marketing measurements follow-up

5- For Manufacturers:
- Rationalized order and invoicing process
- Improvement of the market survey
- Consolidation of production plannings