Most people know that barcodes are special lines and stripes consisting of numbers and characters that are scanned on a barcode scanner. The result is that vendor knowing all types of information on a particular product such as price, immediately and accurately. For instance, when you visit your local grocery store, items being purchased would be scanned. Instantaneously, the name of the product, volume, and price is displayed on the cashier’s computer screen. However, other information not displayed is provided to the vendor, which helps with inventory, tracking, and marketing strategies.
The name of the system depends on the market and country. As an example, in North America, we know the barcode as UPC, which stands for Universal Product Code. However, this same system in Japan is known as JAN and in Europe, EAN. Then, products such as books have a special type of barcode called ISBN. Regardless of the acronym, the concept is much the same. Having a way to identify information about a product in real time and captured using the appropriate type of asset tracking solution.
