The Use and Utility of Barcodes

Barcodes have been around for a number of years and are a very valuable tool in the right circumstances. In these (or any, really) economic times the barcode is a relatively inexpensive tool that can provide a quick ROI. Recently, one of our managers discovered a wonderful new toy called barcodes which, at first blush would eliminate all the problems that her department had and, possibly, save the world. Ok, she wasn’t that enthusiastic, but as soon as she learned that our scanners could eat barcodes like my dog eats kibbles she started saying things like, “We can barcode everything!” 

A little background first, we have a large document imaging product where we store all her documents and there is some delay as the documents are manually indexed. I already have some of my departments using barcodes. Since my philosophy is governed by Murphy’s Law (I still say he was an optimist) we use the tried and true barcode 39; or for you really old timers 3 of 9.

Not wanting to rain on the manager’s parade nor to dampen her enthusiasm for improving her department, I began a gentle education. Since I am in the education mode I thought you might be able to benefit from my temporary focus on barcodes. I think you may find this information helpful and, for all you barcode experts, perhaps a tool to educate your users.

Demystification
The first think is to demystify barcodes. In the simplest form Barcodes are just another font. They are rather dumb and limited, but within their limitations they are very accurate. I will spend some time later on the limitations, but let’s jump into the best application for these babies. To start with I have taken three applications that are appropriate to my business. For those of you with warehouses and in the package delivery service, I know you have advanced barcode systems but these are for my business.

Thought: Barcodes are just another font.

The three main document types that I would like to discuss are system-generated documents, paper that has already been keyed into one of your systems, and plain paper documents.

System Generated Documents
These are documents that one of the systems that you control produce and which must be stored in a document imaging system. The operative word is systems, since our company can use up to five different programs during the processing of a transaction. The goal is to put a barcode on the paper that will allow us to automatically index the document when it is scanned. Barcodes are more accurate that manual keying and are 10 times faster. Getting the system to place a barcode on the document is not usually difficult but may require some programming. In some situations the barcode process may already be available but not turned on. In systems where the customer signature is needed this can be a very effective use of barcodes. Another method is to use a separate program to extract the data from one of the systems and create a Barcoded coversheet.

Thought: Barcodes are more accurate that manual keying and are 10 times faster

Here is a side note for my consultant friends. Ok guys, this is where you guys sniff and say well they should not be creating paper anyway if the system generates a document then it should be captured electronically as part of the workflow process and what about OCR? Now let’s get back to the real world, if we had the money for a sophisticated workflow or OCR programs we wouldn’t be talking about barcodes, now would we? But don’t fear, barcodes are considered the gateway drug into workflow and OCR. Just wait until the economy gets better.

Paper that is keyed into a system as part of a transaction
There are a number of ways to key the information and generate a barcode. Sometimes you can use another program to do the keystroke capture and then split the output to fill the system requirement and also create a barcode coversheet. You may be able to get the system to output a barcode cover sheet. As above you may be able to get a separate program to extract the date and create a barcoded cover sheet. The most important goal is to try to key the account number as few times as possible. Sometimes used but rarely successful is a process where the user manually keys the information a second time into a separate program that creates the barcode coversheet. That does not really eliminate the need for manual indexing of scanned documents it just moves the process back a few steps “a rose by another name.” This is usually slightly less accurate than manually indexing a scanned document.

Thought: The most important goal is to try to key the account number as few times as possible

Just Paper
This is paper that you must capture that can come from many different sources. If the paper is generated by another company sometimes you can approach the other company and get them to put a barcode on the documents. Sometimes you may receive documents in a folder that is barcoded. You may be able to extract keyword elements from the folder using a barcode wand. These are usually critical keywords like customer account number and customer name. If the documents are internal Excel spreadsheets, we give our customers the 3 of 9 barcode font and show them how to barcode the documents. We actually create a cell, with a barcode font which concatenates the required * as the first and last character and points to another cell where the user keys the information in plain language. Some users want to key and generate barcode labels for each document but I have never seen that work successfully.
 

Barcode Limitations
Every application has some limitations which may include that you must use capital letters only, that multiple words be separated by a  ~ , all barcodes must begin and end with an * (that tells the reader where to start and end), and don’t use symbols like $ (using a / is Ok for dates). Based upon my scanners I have found that the best setting is to use plain old Barcode 39 and set it to a font of 24, at least one inch from the edge or the top, ensure that other barcodes are two inches away. With a font of 24 that starts limiting the width of the barcode just because of the size. Barcode 39 can store only one piece of date, although it can appear to be more by using the ~ as a separator, thus Richard~Payne looks like one piece of data to the barcode reader. This does not preclude more information but you have to put it into another barcode or you can use a more sophisticated 2d barcode reader. The more sophisticated you get, the more the potential for problems including problems reading the actual barcode.

Conclusion
Barcodes are an important tool that can improve productivity, decrease costs, and improve accuracy. The key is to apply them in the most advantageous situation. Barcodes are not the answer to all your indexing problems but they can be an important part of your overall capture strategy.

Rich Payne has been working with barcodes and document imaging for almost nineteen years. He can be contacted through Information Zen.