Remember when we asked for barcodes on the product?

Two years ago, I sent a simple 3-question survey to 93 suppliers who I thought appropriate for what I was asking. We were developing a system for Order Accuracy Verification for the Distributor to use in a pre-pack operation and felt confident that we were about to hit a hot button with distributors. My questions THEN were:

What percentage of your product line is barcoded NOW?

If less than 100%, what percentage will be barcoded [next semester]?

If less than 100%, when would you project 100%?

I received only 25 responses, which told me that nearly 75% of the suppliers had no interest in what we were describing. And some of the responders had some interesting notes. My favorite, in response to question #3 was, "Probably never, unless pushed." That particular broker is gone now.

Another response was, "in the next five years". I am happy to report that supplier has "seen the light" and is now 100% compliant.

We now have over 50 distributors using our UltraScan system for verifying accuracy on the pre-pack line. Some of them have already notified you that they will not purchase your product if it is not bar coded.

I-Scan can help with three inventory tasks.

Counting the Boxes.  While the driver is there, the distributor can take this portable, battery batch scanner and scan the barcodes on the cases . . . and I-Scan will do the box count.
 

Receiving the Product.  If all the boxes were barcoded . . . then this step is already complete.  Because, in addition to counting the boxes, I-Scan was storing the information.  When finished, the distributor can set the scanner in its battery charging cradle and upload the information into their Inventory Control portion of our WinUltra program.
 

Physical Inventory Check.  Unless you have the perfect computer program combined with the perfect data entry operators AND the perfect product handlers, there are going to be times when the physical count and the computer count are off.  I-Scan enables the distributor to "check" - or to scan portions of inventory and then COMPARE that with the computer figures and adjust accordingly, if necessary.

Guidelines for the barcode on the cases are relatively simple:

Code should be on the same side of every case, so that it can be easily found. It should NOT be on the top or bottom of the box. Ideally, the side which has the product name and which is facing outward on the pallet. Do NOT put the bar code where the case tape will cover it. We actually saw an example of cases that were bar coded and then the codes covered by brown tape.

We publish a list of "Scanner Friendly Suppliers" each month in our RUNTIME newsletter, currently being mailed to up to 1450 distributors per month.

To be a scanner friendly supplier, all we need is your signed response on my enclosed response form, or a short note on company letterhead signed by someone identified as an authority that states that "100% of our product has a barcode on each product".  

Beginning in July, we will begin indicating which of our Scanner Friendly Suppliers are also printing barcodes on the cases.

If you are a supplier and have NOT had the opportunity to take our survey and to be recognized on this web site and in our newsletters, contact john@qdpcorp.com .