dciscanning posted on July 27, 2009 10:03
GS1 Databar 2010 Sunrise compliant hardware
GS1, the global retail standards-setting organization formerly known as EAN International and Uniform Code Council, has set January 1 2010 as the "sunrise" mandate for global adoption of a new bar code type.
The new type of bar code, GS1 Databar™, has been approved for marking trade items in the retail supply chain. This change is a critical step that enables future standards improvements for several important retail applications, such as coupons and marking of fresh foods and a major step in building a foundation for addressing the current limitations within the retail system.
As of 2010 all manufacturers, worldwide, will have the option of marking their packages with GS1 Databar codes as an alternative to the EAN/UPC bar codes used today. Retailers must be ready to scan these packages at the point-of-sale, on the shelf, in the stockroom and elsewhere within their logistic systems.
For retailers there are two requirements for meeting the 2010 sunrise mandate according to the Datalogic GS1 Databar 3020 sunrise white paper.
1) The first is that all retail systems that scan trade item bar codes must be capable of scanning the new family of GS1 Databar™ Codes, which encode the same data (the Global Trade Item number or GTIN) as encoded in EAN/UPC bar codes today.
2) And the second is that the scanning systems must be capable of recognising additional types of data possibly encoded in GS1 Databar codes, such as weight, price and expiration date, which are identified with GS1 Application IDentifiers (AIs).
Many early adopters in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe such as the fresh grocery produce and pharmaceuticals have begun preparing and implementing of the GS1 Databar™, this will aid bilateral agreement between trading partners for all trade items as well as trckling into South Africa's markets. Purchasing new bar code hardware and software equipment today enables retailers to get the same benefits in fresh foods as they do today with fast moving consumer goods.
In addition, scanning and processing GTIN plus additional data enables new fresh food benefits such as shrink control and traceability. All hardware and software purchases MUST be GS1 Databar™ ready. This includes bar code scanning, design, printing or verification equipment. At a minimum, retailers should be able to scan a GS1 Databar™ and process GTIN to the database.
The Datalogic mobile computer and handheld reader ranges are capable of reading all seven variants of GS1 Databar and capable of returning in the form of GS1 Application identifiers ith accompanying Data.