Barcodes are just Morse Code

If you want to know even more about barcodes, then take a moment to read my previous blog, “How do Barcodes Work” where I explain how barcodes were invented.

The Basics.

If you don’t have time to read the linked blog, I will break it down this way; when you scan a barcode the device translates the image into numbers and letters.

For example, if you scan this barcode:

you will see the number, “1”.

If you scan this barcode:

you will see the letter, “a”.

If you put them together into a single barcode:

you see “1a”.

Great, so how does this help with scanning a package?

Imagine you had an Excel sheet with a list of packages. Each row listed a package’s pick-up address, delivery address, weight and piece count.

Then you assign a unique name to each package, for example “package1” and “package2”. Your Excel sheet looks like this:

This would allow you to quickly find a package by using the “Find” button in Excel and typing in a package name, for example “package1”.

Putting that all together, we can:

1. Make a barcode that translates to “package1”
2. Stick our barcode onto our shipment.
3. Click the “Find” button in Excel.
4. Scan the barcode
5. Which translates to “Package1”
6. Click “Find”
7. And we find our package.

Now that we have selected our package, we can update it by changing its “status” field from “dispatched” to “picked up” or “delivered.”

Essentially, when you break down all the fancy computer code, that’s what’s happening when you scan a shipment.

They key take away is: if you don’t have “Package1” listed as a name in your Excel sheet, you will not find anything when you scan “Package1”. That means all the barcodes on all your shipments must also be in your database and they must be unique for each shipment.

Locations and Chain of Custody

For those who need proof that a shipment has been delivered to the right address, then location barcodes can also be used and they are just as simple.

In our example Excel Sheet we see “Bobs Work” as a delivery address.

All we have to do is make a barcode that translates to “Bobs Work” and stick this by Bob’s loading dock.

When we scan the location barcode and click “Find” we can then see that “Package3” is for delivery at that Bob’s Work.

We can then add another scan for the Package Name. If anything other than a barcode that translates to “Package3” is scanned, we will simply say: “Not for this location”.

Advanced Scanning

Now that we have the basics all sorted, its time for some fun stuff. This is usually where my conversation starts with clients.

How do you scan a barcode such that it magically creates a shipment record in the software?

It’s actually very simple: you just do everything backwards.

First, you scan the location barcode and that tells you the delivery address.

Then you scan the package name barcode which tells you the unique package name.

With those 2 pieces of information, your system creates a new shipment using the matched delivery address and unique package name.

While this works most of time, I’m sure you can see some failings. What about the shipment’s pick-up address, weight, piece count, customer account, etc.

We have two options. One is some coding magic, but that’s a secret. The other is to use a different type of barcode.

Here is a “traditional” Picket Fence barcode that contains the pick-up address, delivery address, weight and piece count.

That’s just way too long for a scanner to read. If we add a street address and customer account details the barcode would not fit on our package.

One solution is QR barcodes.

Picket Fence barcodes are read horizontally from left to right, just like reading a book. Thats why when we add more information the barcode gets bigger

QR barcodes are read horizontally and vertically.

For example, here is a QR Barcode

This barcode contains:

1. Full pick-up address details, including street, state, country and postal/zip
2. Full delivery address details, including street, state, country and postal/zip
3. Weight
4. Piece count
5. Customer account details.

That means you could scan a QR barcode and create a shipment that doesn’t even exist in your database, which would then allow you to properly track and trace your shipment.

Its magic.

Watch IDS scan a Barcode to Deliver a Shipment

If you want to see how IDS scans a barcode to deliver a shipment click here to see and read more.

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“Circular Economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources. Circular systems employ reuse, sharing, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling to create a closed-loop system. Minimizing the use of resource inputs and the creation of waste, pollution and carbon emissions.“

– “The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm?”

After 2 years of researching, I finally took the leap and purchased an Electric Vehicle (EV).

In doing my research I noticed car reviews were consistently asked about the EV’s battery at the end of its life.

This is an excellent question that I, too, had concerns about.

Conversely, when purchasing an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle, no reviews were asking what happens to the engine.

The conversation about EV batteries reflects an increase consciousness of the Circular Economy.

In short, a recent survey conducted by Accenture found:

• 83% of respondents said its important or extremely important for companies to design a product that is meant to be reused or recycled.
• 72% of respondents said they’re currently buying more environmentally friendly products than they were five years ago.

What does this mean for Reverse logistics?

Reverse Logistics. A complete supply chain dedicated to the reverse flow of products and materials for the purpose of returns, repair, remanufacture, and/or recycling.

– Reverse Logistics Association

The reuse and recycling of returned products, combined with the era of free returns, places a high demand on reverse logistics .

As such, experts estimate the world wide reverse logistics market value at US $967.89 billion. Experts further estimate a growth of 5.9% CAGR

What Does this mean for the Final Mile ?

Final Mile (also known a Last Mile) is a phrase widely used to refer to the final leg of a delivery.

The increased volume of products flowing back from the consumer is increasing pressure on Final Mile and Logistics companies.

Interestingly, with the mass adoption of smart mobile devices starting in 2007, the final mile industry has progressed from 2 way radios, pigeonholes, paper slips and excel sheets to real time tracking, online entry and automated routing. Sadly, most are using this technology only for “forward” logistics.

• Only 6% of the companies who use our technology for forward logistics are using technology for reverse logistics.
• 34% are using excel sheets, paper-based or nothing at all. Some are simply providing no tracking.
• 60% don’t participate in the Final Mile of reverse logistics. Though they could easily take part.

Why is this?

Simply put, companies aren’t sure whether “the struggle is worth the outcome”.

Given most Final Mile forward logistics technology doesn’t fit the needs of reverse logistics, a technology investment needs to be made.

Here are some good reasons why you need to invest in the Final Mile reverse logistics chain:

1. Illicit Trade. Theft during the Final Mile helps to fuel illicit trade.
2. Brand Protection. The resale of damaged goods through illicit markets damages the perception of a product’s brand.
3. Data Gap. This can be broken down into 2 categories which are:
   • Big Picture. Decision makers need the data from each silo to see the big picture and make decisions. Neither paper-based tracking nor Excel provide the Final Mile reverse logistics data to decision makers. Reverse logistics Final Mile technology will provide this needed data.
   • Predict and Prepare the Returns Center. Operation Managers need this data to visualize the Final Mile picture. This will allow them to prepare for the change of flow back at the returns centers.

How do we address this?

Previously, I wrote a post discussing Innovative Ways to Pick Up a Return which laid out two ways to address reverse logistics in the Final Mile space. These two was are:

Looking Forward with Technology

Blockchain.

Organizations and manufacturers are creating unique hash keys for each product that then connects to its unique block chain record. With this in mind connecting reverse logistics Final Mile technology to access a product’s block chain record adds extra layers to security, tracking and auditing.

For instance, Blockchain can confirm the right product at the point of pick-up and can assist with sorting by ensuring the right product goes into the right shipping container en route to the right location.

Similarly, blockchain helps to correctly place products into a destruction shipping container, which means you can confidently create death certificates en masse for all products inside a destruction trailer.

Dual GNSS

You maybe surprised to know there is a new technological upgrade being quietly deployed with little notice: Dual GNSS GPS.

Dual GNSS GPS consistently brings mobile GPS accuracy down from 5 meters (16 feet) to 30 cm (12 inches).

There are two reasons why this hidden upgrade will have a positive effect on reverse logistics:

1. Creating Shipments in the Field. Unfortunately with reverse logistics, drivers can arrive at pick up locations without an electronic shipment. For that reason a driver needs to use their mobile device to create a shipment, in the field, at the point of pick up. Thankfully GPS coordinates can accurately be geolocated to an address using the consistent refined accuracy of Dual GNSS GPS. Using the geolocated pick-up address, a shipment is created. As a result tracking and tracing can take place right from the point of pick up.
2. Chain of Custody. Proving a pick-up location when returning controlled substances like pharmaceuticals, cannabis, and tobacco has relied heavily on location barcodes. As a result, the cost of implementing and managing location barcodes has been a burden since the 1970s. With the real and consistent accurate GPS coordinates captured by Dual GNSS GPS, location barcodes will become a thing of the past.

In summary, consumer engagement into the Circular Economy is putting more and more pressure on the Final Mile industry. By using the right technology, reverse logistics can become a source of gain and no longer a source of pain.

The post The Circular Economy and its effects on the Final Mile appeared first on Dispatch & Delivery Software with Routing and Drivers App.

You think you know, but really, do you?

This is the first in series of articles about Barcodes, how they work, innovative ways they are being used and what is next.

The Barcode

In 1948, Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland started research into creating a cash register that could read a product’s label and automatically enter in the correct price. The goal being to speed up and reduce errors during the check out process.

Their first challenge was how to make a product’s label “readable” for a machine.

To solve this, they used technology that was readily available to them in the 1940’s. That being the telegraph.

Before we could transmit our voice through radio waves, we transmitted tapping sounds over wires. The tapping was Morse Code and the machine that made the tapping sound was the Telegraph.

How that tapping or Morse Code worked was simple. If you made 3 quick taps, then 3 long taps and then 3 quick taps, you were saying S.O.S. Where 3 quick taps meant the letter S and 3 long taps meant the letter O.

These taps would be visually represented as dots and dashes. So our S.O.S would look like this:

Woodland’s brilliant idea was to turn Morse Code’s dots and dashing into lines which could then be “read” by a machine.

Using sand on the beach in front of his father’s Florida home, “I just extended the dots and dashes downwards and made narrow lines and wide lines out of them”, said Woodland (Seideman, Tony, “Barcodes Sweep the World”, Wonders of Modern Technology)

Meaning our Morse Code S.O.S. would now look like this:

But there was a problem.

Woodland and Silver realized that their new code would always have to be scanned straight on to ensure the scanner would read their code from left to right.

Meaning, if the code said “coke” and you scanned it upside down, then it would be read as “ekoc”.

Their solution was to create the Circular Barcode, which could be scanned from any angle.

Their Circular Barcodes was the Great Grandparent of the QA Barcode.

The Scanner

Now that Woodland and Silver had their barcode, they needed a way for a cash register to read it. So again, they turned to popular technology that was widely in used in the 40’s. That technology being movies.

When movies first came into being, they were silent. The challenge was how to add sound. The solution was to add the sound directly onto the edge of the film strip as an image of a sound wave.

When the projector shone light through the film onto the movie screen, it also illuminated the images of the sound waves. On the opposite side of the film strip edge was a Photomultiplier.

A Photomultiplier takes light particles, which are known as photons, and turns them into electrons.

As the photons projected through the images of the sound waves changed, then so did the electron flow produced by the Photomultiplier. This changing electron flow created an electric signal. The electric signal was then converted to sounds via an amplifier and a speaker system.

So when Woodland and Silver needed a way for a machine to read their barcodes, they simply adapted the movie sound technology. They did this by shinning a 500-watt light bulb through the barcode and onto a Photomultiplier. But instead of turning the created electronic signal into sound, they converted the signal back into the original letters and numbers of the barcode.

Putting it together

Now that we have a barcode and scanner, we need to put it together so that our cash register would charge the right price.

Imagine if we had a bottle of Coke. We then created a barcode using our converted Morse Code to spelled out the word, “Coke”. We then fastened our barcode onto our bottle.

We then connected our scanner to a computer and scanned our barcode.

The scanner reads the barcode and tells the computer, “Coke”.

The computer then looks up in its’ database the word “Coke”, finds a record that says a Coke costs $1.25 and then display’s on its monitor “Coke $1.25”.

And that’s the magic of barcoding.

But wait! we are not done yet.

We don’t use Morse Code for barcodes and the linear barcode became the standard.  But why?

In 1949 Woodland and Silver filed a patent for their barcode and scanner, which was granted in 1952. They then quickly sold their patent which ended up in the hands of RCA.

While they were waiting for their patent’s approval, and this is important, Woodland started working at IBM.

In 1966, RCA attended a meeting held by the National Association of Food Chains (NAFC) on how to create an automated check out system. The meeting resulted in an agreement to initiate an internal project to test Woodland and Silver’s barcode patent.

In July 1972, RCA and the Kroger Store in Cincinnati started an 18-month test of the Woodland and Silver’s circular barcode. Sadly, their test kept failing because when the printers created the circular barcode, the ink would smear which then made the barcodes unscannable.

Back at IBM, Woodland was still working on his original linear barcode. He discovered that linear barcodes wouldn’t smear because they were printed in the same direction as the stripes.  

But there was still the issue that linear barcodes could only be scanned from one direction.

Thankfully, Woodland’s colleague at IBM, George Laure, overcame this last hurdle by creating the following barcode format standard:

• The first digit was always a 0.
• The next 5 digits was the manufacturer code.
• Which was followed by 6 more digits for the product code
• With the final digit being a check digit to ensure the barcode was read correctly.

With the barcode always starting with a 0 and ending with a check digit, the scanner and computer always knew, regardless at what angle it was being scanned, which way to read the barcode.

Woodlands Linear Barcode combined with Laure’s format became IBM’s UPC (Universal Product Code) which on the April 3, 1973 was selected to be the NAFC standard.

IBM’s UPC is still widely used today as the standard for the retail industry. However, there are now countless number of other barcode formats in use today, such as EAN, Industrial, Interleaved, Standard, PostNet, Code 11, Codabar and QR Barcodes.

So now you know how barcodes work.

Watch IDS scan a shipping barcode

If you wish to learn more, please click here to watch IDS scan shipment.

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Reverse Logistics? “A complete supply chain dedicated to the reverse flow of products and materials for the purpose of returns, repair, remanufacture, and/or recycling.”

– Reverse Logistics Association

But first, if you are not offering Reverse Logistics, you are missing out.

Worldwide, the Reverse Logistics market value is expected to reach $603.90 billion by 2025; that’s up from a value of $415.2 Billion in 2017. The main driving forces behind the growth of this market are the expansion of e-commerce, more stringent government regulations, the pharmaceutical industry and the rising tide of e-waste (Reverse Logistics Market by Return Type (Recalls, Commercial Returns, Repairable Returns, End-of-use Returns, and End-of-life Returns) and End User (E-commerce, Automotive, Pharmaceutical, Consumer Electronic, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018 – 2025)

If that’s still not enough to sway you, with governments tightening up regulations on pharmaceuticals and tobacco, the increased flow of high value e-waste and the legalization of recreational cannabis, you might just find yourself in a position where you have no choice but to offer Reverse Logistics.

More than “Pick Up and Go”

Sometimes just picking up a return and putting it in a vehicle is not the way to go. Cost and documentation are key considerations in the choice to use Reverse Logistics.

Pick Up and Go?… it’s just Drop and go but in Reverse

While “Pick-Up and Go” does reduce the cost of the initial pick-up, it significantly increases the overall cost of your reverse logistics process by creating more labor and costs further down the chain.

That’s because Returns almost always result in a direct financial payment or credit which carries tax implications.

When dealing with controlled substances – like cannabis, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco – government regulations regarding accuracy of Return contents must be satisfied.

“Pick-up and Go” means the contents of a return will not be audited until the package arrives back at the reclamation center. This could be days or even weeks later. Any mistakes will result in the expense of further communication with the customer, manually updating financial records, and sending out yet another vehicle, all to pick-up the Return again. Hopefully the second pick-up will be correct.

The Reclamation Centre is the central warehouse of Reverse Logistics.

A simple, innovative solution – currently in use – is to scan each product’s SKU or UPC at the point of pick-up to document the accuracy of the Return shipment.

For controlled substances and goods of high value, a location scan can also be included to prove the product scan took place at the pick-up location.

By scanning each product’s SKU or UPC at the point of pick-up, the accuracy of the Return is immediately confirmed. This reduces the overall cost – when including customer service, taxes, and extra pick-up expenses – of your Reverse Logistics process.

One last point: imagine a customer requesting a Return and credit for goods worth $1000. This customer then ships the wrong the products which only have a value of $100. How and when do you capture this cost?

Creating Documented and Audited Returns in the Field

How do you create an efficient process for those large retailers who refuse to provide, in advance, an itemized list of what is being returned? They simply demand that a vehicle is sent to their location to pick-up all the products to be returned.

An innovative way to meet this challenge is to take the solution from above, “More than Pick-Up and Go”, a step further.

When the driver arrives at the location, they simply scan the SKU or UPC of each product into their mobile device. The scanned SKU or UPC is then matched to a product and the number of times the item is scanned is equal to the number of pieces of that product. From these scans an itemized return is created, complete with electronic documentation.

Think of it as turning the mobile device into a mobile shipping portal.

For controlled substances and extra security, a pick-up location scan can be added into the process.

Why not simply pick-up the product, bring it back to a reclamation center, then sort and create a return at that time?

It comes down to loss prevention – especially for controlled substances and goods of high value – and customer service.

By creating a true itemized shipment at the point of pick-up, you can ensure that all the product is accounted for as the Return works its way back through the Reverse Logistics chain to the Reclamation Center.

You can also instantly provide to your customer an itemized list of exactly what was returned. They will not have to wait days – if not weeks – for the Return to work its way back to the reclamation center and be audited to receive their itemized list.

Verifying Authorized Returns

Some manufacturers restrict Returns to a maximum per annum, by product type and/or amount. How do you meet those requirements and ensure what is being picked up matches the authorized return amount?

An innovative process currently implemented is as follows:
1) the customer calls in or enters online their request for a return;
2) the request is authorized;
3) the exact product type, quantities, and customer’s location is transferred to the logistics company’s TMS which in turn creates a detailed Return.

When the driver arrives at the pick-up location, they scan the product’s SKU or UPC against the created Return to ensure an exact match to what was authorized. At this point the driver can refuse to pick-up any extra or incorrect stock.

Some might balk at having the driver enforce the accuracy of the Return. The alternative is to pay the internal costs of shipping the incorrect Return back to the reclamation center and having an employee contact the customer to try and fix the mistake. Then, the company must decide if the mistake should just be absorbed as a cost or if they should spend more to dispatch another vehicle to pick-up the Return, hoping that it’s accurate this time.

Reverse Logistics and the Chain of Custody

Sending out your fleet to pick-up Returns without any proper control can be a mistake. It’s interesting to see final-mile deliveries demand a proper Proof of Delivery (POD), while the Reverse Logistics of the very same product amounts to placing the product into the back of a vehicle without a proper Proof of Pick-Up (POP). Some products that are being returned hold significant value and demand proper tracking and tracing

POP? Its not Proof of Delivery, its Proof of Pick Up

A simple, innovative solution is to treat the Return just like a delivery, but capture the POP and Shippers….AKA the “Return’er“… signature. From that point onwards, the normal Chain of Custody procedure is observed.

Reverse Logistics Offers Superior Customer Satisfaction

In addition to capturing a POP, some Reverse Logistics providers are then affixing the POP and signature onto a PDF eBol – which contains a list of products picked-up – that is then instantly emailed to the customer.

eBol? Electronic Bill of Lading

Why have the customer wait to receive the itemized eBol days – or even weeks – later? Just so the Return can arrive back at the reclamation center and be audited? That wait defeats the purpose of a Bol.

Some innovators have taken this even further: by connecting their TMS to their accounting system (SAP, etc.) they can instantly apply a credit to customer for the return at the point of pick-up. Customers can see their credit within minutes of the Return being picked up.

These are some of the innovative ways the Reverse Logistics process starts at the point of pick-up. Please feel free to add your experiences in the comments below.

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