2008, Packaging World - Traceability

Identification systems and their practical use

Barcodes on the packaging of goods in shops, withdrawing money from an ATM using a payment card, toll gates on Czech motorways - what do these things have in common? They are all specific applications of one field, which is called identification technology.

The subject of automatic identification, as this field is also often called, is, in short, the unambiguous marking of each monitored object, the technical provision of the rapid and error-free retrieval of such a mark, and the comprehensive system itself, capable of tracking the movements and relationships between each object so that it corresponds as closely as possible to the real world.

So far, the most efficient way to tag objects for further processing is still the barcode. We can think of it as a special alphabet created just for machine reading. The individual "letters" of such an alphabet differ from each other by differences almost indistinguishable to the human eye. However, the reading device will detect without error that some lines or spaces are differently wide. It also makes no difference to the machine whether it reads the printed mark from left to right or from right to left. It is fast enough for such a simple operation to reverse the read word in its memory if it does not make sense one way. Finally, in such an "alphabet" for an automaton, we can equip each typed word with an obligatory additional letter at the end, which is added up from all the preceding characters. This letter is called a control character. If the reading machine does not match the character it calculates with the one actually printed at the end of the word, the reading is evaluated as an erroneous attempt and no reading result is sent to the system.

Barcodes can therefore be created quite easily on a personal computer and printed on a connected printer, provided that the correct font is available and the rules for calculating the check characters are followed, e.g.other specific rules (different types of barcodes can, for example, combine multiple characters into one, swap black with white according to specified rules, and other similar techniques). Specially designed truetype fonts for barcode printing can be found on the websites of specialist companies, for example at http://www.codeware.cz.

Figure 1: Using a truetype font in an MS Excel document.

A more expensive, but much more user-friendly way to create and print a barcode is to use a special program. For example, BarTender (manufactured by Seagull Scientific Inc.) offers everything you need for such a purpose. You can see the created document on your computer screen, and of course, in addition to barcodes, you can also use images or plain fonts, not to mention such things like control characters, you don't have to worry about barcodes at all, and you can print the result on any networked printer. The latest version of BarTender 8 even lets you create and print a document from any workstation on your local network that has an Internet browser in the Enterprise edition. That can be a Linux desktop or a portable wireless PDA.

Figure 2: BarTender, software for professional creation and printing of not only barcodes

Thermal transfer barcode printers

But what printer to use if you need to get finished labels straight onto reels for more convenient operability? Or to ensure that only a single sticker is printed from the system on a particular signal and not a full A4 page?

This is what special barcode printers are for. Thanks to the thermal transfer method, they can also be used to print material other than paper. In practice, various plastic materials are often printed (stickers made of PVC, PE), but also, for example, textile ribbons. If you do not load the thermal transfer printer with a ribbon, you can use it to print heat-sensitive stickers. Such thermal printers without a thermal transfer ribbon attachment are used, for example, in automatic scales in supermarkets.

You may be surprised to know that thermal printers and thermal transfer printers for barcode printing have a print head resolution of only 200 dpi (less often 300 dpi). However, for quality barcode printing, this resolution is quite sufficient.

The reason that may deter you from buying a dedicated barcode label printer may be its higher price. But such a calculation can be very tricky. After printing a few thousand A4 sheets of stickers, you will destroy the laser printer quite reliably, and the subsequent repairs will cost you more than investing in a dedicated label printer. Not to mention that removing finished stickers from the rolls is much more convenient and faster. Today, you can buy office thermal transfer barcode printers on the Czech market for up to ten thousand CZK including VAT, for example Argox printers. In addition, Argox printers have a lightweight version of the above-mentioned BarTender printing and designing program in their basic equipment.

Figure 3: Argox X-2000+ thermal barcode printer

Traceability Act

All food businesses (importers, farms, processors, manufacturers, distributors) in EU member countries are required to have comprehensive procedures and systems in place for the so-called traceability of their products as of 1 January 2005. This obligation is regulated by Act No. 316/2004 Coll, No. 316/2004, which extended Act No. 110/1997 on Food and Tobacco Products by paragraphs 4 and 5, referring to Articles 18 and 19 of EU Regulation No. 178/2002.

In practice, this means that, for food safety reasons, every food business must be able to quickly establish and document for each product from whichwhich raw materials have been produced, from whom the raw materials were purchased, who produced them, whether they are in stock, the batches of the raw materials, and to whom they sold their product. Of course, this also applies to the packaging material directly affecting the product, including its batch.

The technical solution to the requirements of this law has proved to be a direct model example of the use of identification technology procedures in practice. No implementing regulation for the implementation of EU Regulation No. 178/2002 has not been issued, but almost all food trade and production chains have adopted the procedure recommended by GS1 (formerly EAN). This procedure is based on the UCC/EAN-128 barcode.

In fact, the UCC/EAN-128 barcode is the original Code-128 barcode type used for several decades. GS1 has only introduced the ability to structure the encoded information into specific fields using the capabilities already provided by the basic Code-128 code. Individual fields are separated in the barcode by so-called application identifiers. The application identifiers and the rules for writing data into specific fields are what distinguish the UCC/EAN-128 barcode from the original Code-128 barcode.

The content of the pallet label (logistics label) in UCC/EAN-128 then generally looks like this:

(identifier1)content_field1(identifier2)content_field2(identifier3)content_field3 ...

Figure 4: Example of a pallet label (logistics label) created using BarTender. An important feature of BarTender is that it has knowledge of the application identifiers for UCC/EAN-128 built-in and guides the user through the creation of the label field by field in a clear dialog.

There are more than 100 application identifiers defined by GS1 for use in the UCC/EAN-128 code. These can be used to include information such as unique commodity code, date of manufacture, expiration date, weight, batch, etc. on the logistics label.

Obviously, if the same logistics labels with all the necessary data are used throughout the entire production-supply chain and the complete data is read at each transhipment point and entered into the system, it is indeed relatively easy and quick to trace both the exact origin of a particular product and the route it took, and finally to determine the occurrence of all other products in the same batch.

The impetus for the creation of an EU legislative framework on traceability was the BSE virus attack in England at the turn of the millennium. The priority of this standard is consumer protection and the prevention of similar cases. Today, after two years of the Law 316/2004, we can say that it has protected us well against the uncontrolled spread of dangerous diseases such as BSE or avian flu.

However, many production and supply chains, and not just food chains, soon found that labelling semi-finished products, materials and products with logistics labels could bring them the bonus of streamlining productionproduction and logistics, a substantial reduction in the necessary warehouse inventories and therefore a reduction in the space (buildings) requiredfor production, shortening all time intervals and simplifying regular inventories.

Will RFID technology replace barcodes?

Recently, another field of identification technology, namely RFID chips, has become widely used. RFID technology brings with it new opportunities for further speeding up logistics processes and expanded possibilities for material and product tracking. For example, an RFID pallet tag can have a temperature sensor built into it. In the case of frozen goods, RFID technology makes it possible to determine whether the correct temperature has been maintained throughout transport.

There are also areas where cheaper barcode tags cannot be used at all, or can be used but very inefficiently. For example, in the automotive industry, where repainting a component requires a new identification label. Of course, the label itself is not that expensive. However, the need to organise relabelling in the production line already entails a necessary financial investment in the construction of a labelling workstation and a loss of time in an otherwise smooth production line.

Figure 5: RFID Smart Label

Still, let's be clear at this point: RFID technology is not a replacement for barcodes. It's the same as saying that using pictograms or videos will replace the use of the alphabet. Let's see the use of RFID as an extension of the capabilities of barcodes, not as a replacement for them. Barcodes remain the cheapest means of identification systems, and will remain so for many years at least.

Many devices are already being manufactured to use both technologies simultaneously in one system. Some models of barcode printers can encode an RFID chip at the same time as printing a label, if it is a so-called RFID Smart Label. The BarTender program, mentioned in the introduction to this article, allows you to create barcode objects, images and text in addition toobjects for RFID chips (these are not printed, but write data to the RFID chip and verify the correctness of the writing during the printing of the label).

Also, portable data collection terminals can be equipped with both a barcode reader and an RFID chip reader/writer. Especially for logistics terminals, such devices are increasingly encountered.

Figure 6: CipherLab CPT-9500 logistics portable terminal, equipped with a barcode scanner and RFID chip reader/writer

Comprehensive warehouse management system

Today's article described the different ways of creating a barcode, summarized the requirements of EU Regulation No. 178/2002 requirements for food manufacturers and retailers, and compared the possibilities of barcodes versus RFID technology.

CODEWARE, s.r.o. offers a product combining all of the above into one functional unit. The MOBILE STORE system is designed for automated management of warehouse operations.

MOBILE STORE is based on the popular Abra G3 or Abra G4 software from Aktis. The system can be used for office work (orders, invoicing, customer database, correspondence, price list, etc.) is no different from the normal use of this popular ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning System).

You will know the difference the moment you enter the actual warehouse. Any warehouse operation, such as loading, unloading, inventory, etc., is performed by on-site personnel using portable wireless terminals connected to the main system. Need to print a pallet label? After entering the necessary data on the portable terminal and sending it to the main system, the created label is ejected from the barcode printer connected to the local network in seconds. Warehouse storage areas can be tagged with RFID chips. Before stocking, the warehouseman receives from the system, in addition to a list of items, instructions on where to store the goods. After execution, the storage position is automatically checked and entered into the system.

The link between MOBILE STORE and the Abra ERP system is not the only possible and fixed link. MOBILE STORE is designed to work with any SQL database that can be connected via ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) after certain programming and configuration modifications.

What have our customers gained by implementing MOBILE STORE in their business? What was expected from a system using identification technology: speed and error-free warehouse operations, clarity of the location of stored items, in short, a significant improvement in the efficiency of work in the warehouse.

Vladislav Zvelebil

CODEWARE, s.r.o.

Director