13 Numbers sort the World

© GS1 Germany

© GS1 Germany

© GS1 Germany

© GS1 Germany

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On 1 July 1977 the barcode was introduced marking a new era in the retail universe. This means the black and white bar pattern on packaging has provided encoded information on products and their producers for 30 years now. And this barcode continues to be the basis for electronic data interchange between retail and industry – even though new technologies are already in the pipeline.

Global retail would be unthinkable today without those “striped labels” on everything from Coke cans to muesli bars. Before 1977 each item had to be tagged individually and its price typed into the cash register. Nowadays, this works automatically almost everywhere in the world and sales checks reveal each item purchased and its price – long taken for granted by us. From ordering goods by computer and safely identifying them to ensuring their constant availability at the POS: the globally recognised 13-digit article number allows companies to perfectly synchronize their business processes with each other.

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The Breakthrough

The Code was developed by two Americans – as early as 1949. BAN (“Bundeseinheitliche Artikel-Nummerierung“ – Uniform German Article Numbering) was introduced in 1969 and 1974 saw the first product, a package of fruit chewing gum, being retailed with an American barcode (Universal Product Code, UPS) in the USA. In 1977 12 European countries finally agreed on EAN – a uniform European Article Number comparable to the US UPC and the barcode was born. However, a meaningful use for the new barcodes was still missing in the days of price labels and label guns. 1978 saw several companies equip some isolated retail stores with new check-out systems. The breakthrough for barcodes only occurred in the late 80s when discount stores and retailers also joined in. Over time the European Article Number developed into the International Article Number. In 1999 almost 870,000 users deployed EAN.UCC Standards worldwide.

The Way for the Future

But progress does not even stop short of such successful developments. Developers have already been busy working on tomorrow’s standards for some time now: these include the Electronic Product Code (EPC) based on Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID), to name but one. Reading is not only contactless but also without direct visual contact. The EPC in combination with RFID are expected to replace the identification numbers provided by the Global Location Number (GLN) – such as Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) and barcode-based EAN or Serial Shipping Container Code (NVE/SSCC) – in the medium term. In contrast to the identification number system that only distinguishes between product categories, the EPC serves as a unique identifier for each individual finished product. This is why a serial number was attached to some identification numbers such as GTIN (14-digit EAN number), the so-called SGTIN. These are developments that are also increasingly gaining importance for the smart packaging theme.

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RFID on Everybody’s Lips

Even though RFID labelling systems have been on everybody’s lips for years now, RFID tags cannot claim to have already ousted traditional barcode labels. Barcodes are an important and established auto-ID technology in many logistics processes and therefore stand their ground tenaciously. They are predominantly attached directly to the packaging of goods or printed onto labels that are then affixed to the merchandise. All benefits of RFID technology considered, their size is still regarded as cumbersome: they are comparatively wieldy and hard to attach. Transponders are far easier to integrate in given processes if they feature similar properties as the labels in use. With this in mind and in the wake of the on-going miniaturisation of components smart labels were developed.

Though barcodes are a well-established and globally standardised technology, the benefits of RFID cannot be denied: thanks to RFID tags labels can contain clearly more machine-readable information than just numbers. Furthermore, they can be supplemented or changed on the various levels of the value chain and are substantially harder to destroy. And while barcode readers still require visual contact UHF-RFID tags are read automatically via radio.

RFID as such is not new, only its manufacturing processes. Fundamentally new are the functionalities of the products and their target markets. People today regard the tags or transponders employed in British star fighters during WWII as a principal precursor to RFID technology: back then they were the size of a suitcase and very heavy. In the 60s the first precursors appeared in civilian applications such as goods anti-theft systems. In the 70s RFID systems were used in agriculture for animal identification before the 80s saw this technology being developed further for road-toll systems, especially in the USA and some Scandinavian countries. Until the late 90s different standards were developed in various countries until it became clear that only the development of one global standard made sense. However, it still remains questionable whether the increasing use of RFID will succeed in replacing the good old barcode so quickly. Even though there are in principle new avenues for identification opening up now, barcodes will be with us for some more time, if only for price reasons.