Barcode Verification: There is no Shortcut

Well over a decade since the major retailers made it quite clear that barcodes should be quality controlled using a verification process to ISO standards, a worrying number of print & apply labelling machine users still appear to rely on barcode scanning alone to check their pallet and case labels.

Barcode Verification

As many have unfortunately discovered, barcodes that fail to read in the distribution chain bring expensive trouble from most retailers, often in the form of fines and returned transit packs, as well as a tarnished reputation.

In fact, it was as long ago as 1998 that the 'Mr Big' report from the Institute of Grocery Distribution said quite unequivocally that retailers expected ISO verification.

Indeed, the Article Number Association (now known as GS1) had been pointing this out for very much longer and the ISO requirements themselves state that all companies printing their own barcodes - which includes print & apply - verify the results, ensuring an acceptable image is created for word-wide use.

Still, though, it seems hard to dispel the dangerous myth that if a print & apply barcode scans correctly on a production line, it will read correctly at all points in the distribution chain.

Barcode Scanning

The difference between barcode verification and barcode scanning is that barcode verification measures and grades the quality of a barcode, and can provide information to help diagnose the cause of any problems, while barcode scanning is simply the process of reading the data from the symbol. This provides no indication of a barcode's quality.

To quote GSI advice: "Any verifier used to check the quality of GS1 barcodes should conform to the international standard ISO/IEC 15426-1, which will ensure that the codes are graded according to the standard ISO/IEC 15416."

No fixed head scanners of the type used on print & apply labelling machines are able to meet this specification.

Scanning barcode labels as they are applied simply tells you in real time that the barcode is the right code and good enough to be read by that particular scanner, under the conditions at that time, but nothing more.

A barcode verifier is entirely different and should be recognised as a scientific instrument able to give a barcode the CEN or ANSI grading demanded by retailers and laid down by GS1 to ensure that a barcode can be read by different scanners in different circumstances along the supply chain.

The CEN or ANSI grading is unique. There is no way of reaching this grading through any other route or such things as an 'ANSI equivalent', a quite misleading term that surfaces from time to time.

Also, since much more processing time is needed, a barcode verifier takes about 10-20 seconds to assess a label, making it impossible to carry out barcode verification on line.

Rather, barcode verification is an off-line quality control routine in which, usually, labels are assessed at the beginning of a run, at pre-set intervals and then at the end.

There is simply no short cut to establishing barcode quality.