[TriLUG] central bar-code database?

[Greg Brown]

Actually I was thinking more about "grocery store stuff" more then
electronics.  Thanks for the info on both though.  I found this thread most
interesting.

Greg


On 2/13/06, William Sutton <william at trilug.org> wrote:
>
> I think this depends on your definition of "retail products".  If you mean
> supermarket groceries, that may be.  If you mean consumer
> electronics...doubtful.
>
> --
> William Sutton
>
>
> On Mon, 13 Feb 2006, Brian Henning wrote:
>
> > On the other hand, the "bar code" most commonly found on retail products
> >   is a UPC - Universal Product Code.  These are administered by the GS1
> > US (formerly the Uniform Code Council), and theoretically should be able
> > to be traced back to their registered owner.
> >
> > ~Brian
> >
> > William Sutton wrote:
> > > Having worked in a manufacturing firm (one of the largest in the
> world)
> > > as one of the people responsible for the manufacturing software, I'll
> wade
> > > in on this and give you the short and long answers.
> > >
> > > The short answer (unsurprisingly) is no.
> > >
> > > The long answer is somewhat more complicated.
> > >
> > > First thing to remember about a barcode:  it isn't magic.  It takes
> > > different patterns of rectangles to represent a single data character
> > > (e.g., 0-9A-Za-z).  Add to that the usual use of a start/stop bit to
> flag
> > > the scanner that a data pattern has started/ended, and you're looking
> at a
> > > small amount of data in that barcode.
> > >
> > > This isn't really a concern since most of the time, the data
> represented
> > > by the barcode is printed at the bottom (e.g., 001-4323-4439-A), and
> is
> > > usually some sort of serial number.
> > >
> > > Different serial numbers are constructed differently based on a number
> of
> > > factors:
> > > - How the business that contracted the product wants it composed
> > > - How the manufacturer wants it composed
> > > - Uniqueness concerns
> > > - Lot/sublot/manufacture date desires
> > >
> > > Generally you'll see one of a number of strategies employed:
> > > - a block representing the lot/sublot
> > > - a block representing the date
> > > - a block representing the revision
> > > - a block representing a unique sequence
> > >
> > > Any of these can be fixed or variable width, and in just about any
> order
> > > desired.
> > >
> > > And that's for one manufacturer for one customer for one product.  You
> > > can appreciate the potential complexity involved, particularly
> considering
> > > the fact that no one manufacturer is going to share this information
> with
> > > its competitors.
> > >
> > > Now, some of these numbers are standardized for one vendor across its
> > > products (think Lenovo ThinkPads) so that any repair work can follow a
> > > standardized serial number format and product repair process (think
> RMA).
> > > Nonetheless, that may necessitate a manufacturer code being added to
> the
> > > serial number so that one can know who worked on it...
> > >
> > > As a final aside...lots of information is tracked by the serial
> number.
> > > Depending on what is kept by whom, you can have as little information
> as
> > > the manufacturer or as much as every step of the manufacturing process
> > > including test results.
> > >
> > > HTH :)
> > >
> >
> >
> --
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