Bar Code Smart Solution

When producing barcodes, the SIMMS Barcode Module and SIMMS 2D Barcode Modules are the smart solution as they increase efficiency while lowering costs. We can also offer complete hardware packages and customized solutions. Every industry has unique demands and SIMMS offers the most sophisticated barcode, label-making module on the market. Whether you are looking for barcode labels to be printed for one specific serialised item or for entire categories, SIMMS is compatible with plain laser printers, specialised dot matrix printers and thermal barcode printers.

• Print serialized barcodes from our easy-to-use barcode interface
• Print barcodes to include your items manufacturer lot numbers with the barcode manager
• Easily print Apparel item barcodes for every item on a receipt of instantly
• Printing apparel item tags is easily done from within the barcode manager
• Print barcodes for all items from a receipt of goods
• Print barcodes for an entire category of items in the barcode manager
• We support several barcode formats. so you can easily export your labels to an external crystal report for quick adjustments and layout changes.
• Printing location barcoded labels can be easily achieved by either adding one location at a time to the barcode printing wizard or all locations in your system. Location labels allow you the ability to scan your location codes during your transactions or on the warehouse floor using a handheld data collector. This makes inventory management dramatically easier by eliminating the possibility of user error.
• There’s no doubt that 2D barcoding is here to stay. We can confidently handle that for you as well. You can select what information should be included in your 2D barcode (for example, item number, item description, upc code, qty, mfg lot, etc); and you can also set the 2D barcode escape code parameters using the advanced barcode printer setup .

Find the right solution for your immediate and future growth needs. The SIMMS Barcode Module is just one of the quality POS and inventory solutions provided by Invotec.

The Advantages of Barcoding:

Both manufacturers and distributors use barcoding to track production, parts, shipping, and warehousing. Various label and scanning systems are designed for both warehouse and manufacturing environments. Also, it is now a requirement of many national chains that manufacturers ship their products already tagged and barcoded to their specifications.

Barcoding for inventory control by retailers is crucial to the success of their business. Inventory cycle counts, point-of-sale checkout, purchasing and sales analysis are some of the benefits of a retail barcode system.

In today's business environment, staying competitive is critical to your success. Barcode data-collection technology is an effective way to improve the bottom line and meet the competitive challenges faced by your organisation.

For information about barcode data-capture technology, use this guide.

When combined with data-collection technology, barcodes provide a quick, accurate, and efficient way to collect, process, transmit, record and manage data. Areas that can benefit from the use of barcodes include retail, package delivery, warehousing and distribution, manufacturing, health care, and point-of-service applications. Whatever the application, whatever the environment, Invotec puts all its efforts into making our barcode-based data collection products suit you. Please call us today at 1300 468 683 (Australia) or +61 3 9532 5165 (outside Australia) for more information about how we can work with you to plan your barcode-based solution.

About Barcodes: A barcode can be described as an "optical Morse code". Series of black bars and white space of varying widths are printed on labels to uniquely identify items. The barcode labels are read with A scanner, which measures reflected light and interprets the code into numbers and letters, reads the barcode labels and the information is passed on to a computer.

Automatic Identification: Automatic identification or "Auto ID” incorporates the automatic recognition, decoding, processing, transmission and recording of data, most commonly through the printing and reading of information encoded in barcodes. They enable a quick, simple and accurate reading then transmission of data for items that need to be tracked or managed. Barcodes can be printed directly on mailing tubes, envelopes, boxes, cans, bottles, packages, books, files, paperwork, furniture, cards, etc for identification.

Auto ID systems, including barcodes and related printers, scanners, decoders and software, has dramatically increased the speed, efficiency and accuracy of data collection and entry. The earlier introduction of barcode scanning, which included retail point-of-sale, item tracking and inventory control, has been expanded. It now includes more advanced applications such as time and attendance, work-in-process, quality control, sorting, order entry, document tracking, shipping and receiving and controlling access to secure areas. These expanded systems have significantly increased productivity by linking production, warehousing, distribution, sales and service to management information systems on a batch or real-time basis. As a result, opportunities to improve operational efficiencies and customer responsiveness have developed for retailers, transportation and package delivery companies, manufacturers, wholesale distributors and service providers.

Benefits of Barcoding: Barcode data collection systems provide enormous benefits for almost any business. Using a barcode data collection solution, capturing data is faster and more accurate, costs are lower, mistakes are minimized, and managing inventory is so much easier.

Some of the benefits of barcode data entry include:

Fast and Reliable Data Collection: Faster Data Entry: A barcode scanner typically can record data five to seven time as fast as a skilled typist. 10,000 Times better Accuracy: Keyboard data entry creates an average of one error in 300 keystrokes. However, barcode data entry has an error rate of about 1 in 3 million.

Reduced Labor Costs: This is the most obvious benefit of barcode data collection. In many cases, this cost saving pays for the entire data-collection system. Even though this seems the most apparent benefit, it is often overshadowed by even greater savings elsewhere.

Reduced Revenue Losses Resulting from Data Collection Errors:

The savings in labor costs are often surpassed by this benefit. It’s a sad fact that if you make a significant error on an invoice in the customer's favour, you will never hear about it again. However, if the error is in your favour, you will hear about it immediately. Unfortunately, it does not take many errors to amount to a great deal of lost revenue. Necessary Inventory Levels: Using barcodes are one of the best ways to reduce inventory levels and save on capital costs. Keep control on inventory to save on cash flow.

Improved Management and Better Decision Making: While difficult to measure, this is surely an important benefit. Often improved management due to automated data collection technology could be the best benefit of a barcode system. A barcode system can easily gather information that would be difficult or impossible to gather in other ways. It allows managers to make informed decisions that can affect the production and management of a department or company.

Faster Access to Information: This benefit runs alongside better decision-making. With improved information, you can seize opportunities and get ahead of the competition.

The following are some of the many ways barcodes are being used to improve the profitability and efficiency on various businesses::

Point of Sale: Point of sale is one of the most common areas of the barcode market. Everyone is familiar with the scanners in grocery and department stores. Benefits of barcoding in point-of-sale systems include:

Cost Savings: This is the most obvious benefit. A medium-to-large store can save enough checkout time to significantly reduce payroll. Less time spent taking inventories and ordering product can also save direct labor costs..

Customer Satisfaction: A proper barcode system will speed customer checkout. Customer satisfaction will improve enough to directly increase revenue over time.

Reduced Inventory Costs: Immediate access to inventory information on a real-time basis can be used to reduce inventory levels. This reduces costs for a company in a number of ways, including interest, labor for handling excess inventory, and facility overhead.

Automated Reordering: Automated replenishment of low inventory mean accurate stock levels.

Better Decision Making: With barcode data collection you can tell not only what the customers are buying, but also when they are buying it and in what combinations. This can improve business management by suggesting more suitable locations for goods and providing valuable marketing information such as identifying advertising targets. Point-of-Sale systems can be used in any retail setting. The grocery industry is the best organized setting, but most of those retailers concentrate on high-end scanner/mainframe systems. However, there are multiple opportunities for PC-based systems in small to large-sized businesses, such as video stores, convenience markets, and clothing stores.

Work In Progress: Many manufacturing and other industries have work that must go through several stages to completion. Barcode systems can track material through each stage and keep detailed records on each piece or batch. Should a problem occur in the output, managers can track the work back and quickly resolve the issue. This is one of the best ways to improve both quality and yield in virtually any multi-step process.

Inventory Control: Tracking inventory manually is a laborious process. With barcodes applied to each item in inventory, portable scanners can be used to track shipping and receiving and quickly take physical inventory. The data from portable scanners can be uploaded to a central computer system at regular intervals or portables can update inventory in real-time, depending on the system you choose. Barcode inventory control provides accurate, real-time inventory updates. This gives a company the opportunity to reduce stock levels and thereby reduce carrying costs. It also reduces the time taken to collect data for purposes such as annual inventories. With improved efficiency, operating costs are lower.

Secured Access: By controlling access using encoded employee identification badges, a secured access system can provide door and gate security. Barcode badge scanners or magnetic stripe readers are mounted at doors and gate entrances, and authorisation is provided from a central computer.

Time and Attendance: A time and attendance system uses encoded employee identification badges that are scanned when employees start and stop work. This allows automatic tracking for payroll and eliminates paper time sheets and time clocks.

Quality Control: Barcode systems in quality control can be used identify which test to perform for a given part and where to send it if it fails. Barcode systems can also create permanent records for tracking component and assembly failures.

Packaging: For packaging, a barcode printer is used to generate a label to identify part numbers, serial numbers, and shipping information. This labeling can be used to automatically sort packages for shipment, automate receiving and thereby improve package tracking.

Collection of Data from Forms: Businesses such as medical and dental practices rely on complex patient forms. Using barcodes, detailed information can be quickly entered in the computer. Barcodes printed by check boxes on a form allow fast, accurate data entry by simply scanning the codes by the check boxes. This simplifies the gathering of large amounts of information about a client, resulting in reduced data collection costs and better service.

Productivity Measurement Systems: Productivity measurement is a practice that can drastically reduce labor costs in manufacturing, warehousing and many other types of business. A well-managed system will allow supervisors to isolate problems as they arise so steps can be taken to solve them. Productivity-measurement systems automatically track what work is currently being done and compare the work to expected output. When the results do not measure up, supervisors can take corrective action. This type of informed supervision and management can typically cut department costs by 15 to 20 percent.

Summary: These few examples should get you thinking about what you can do with bar codes. Barcode systems routinely save money while improving quality, on-time performance, and other key business factors.

Types of Data-Collection Systems:

Barcode data-collection systems fall into three basic types: interactive, batch, and hybrid.

An interactive system consists of one or more portables connected in real time to a computer. In these systems, the central computer manages data collection and verification as the user enters data.

A batch system uses one or more portables to gather data that is stored for later input to a computer. This is the most common and most economical portable system. Only limited validity checking is possible with a batch system.

A combination of the two is the hybrid system.

Interactive Systems: Interactive systems have several advantages over batch systems. Almost all systems where barcode hardware is in a fixed location are interactive systems.

Advantages include:

Immediate Data Verification: As the user enters data, the computer can check its validity and give the user variable responses depending on that validity. Sophisticated Data Verification: When performing data verification, an interactive system can check many more variables. For example, a batch system can check the status of a part number only against the last part numbers that were sent to the portable. An interactive system can check the status of a part number against the entire inventory at any time.

User Interaction: Interactive systems can give the user better feedback when an error occurs. Since the system can check more variables, responses can be tailored to the user to solve problems.

Error Reduction: All of the above advantages tend to reduce errors in an interactive system. This reduces the labor cost incurred to correct the errors, as well as the consequences of acting on incorrect data.

Easy Setup:Much like programming for PCs, Interactive systems use standard programming techniques and error checking. You can process each transaction and verify data in real time. Batch processing requires a way to process data in batches and a mechanism for correcting errors after the fact.

Batch Systems: Batch systems are generally used with portable readers. They are also used in some fixed-mount systems where the reader must continue to collect data if the computer system goes down. While interactive systems are superior in the ways listed above, batch systems do have some advantages:

Economical for Standard Portables: Portables can be used for batch or real-time applications. Real-time applications require a costly radio frequency (RF) network. On average, setup costs for batch systems are less than half the costs of RF systems.

Reliable in Mission-Critical Applications: Operation is not dependent on the central computer, since batch processing distributes data collection to stand-alone units. If a particular unit fails, it can be replaced. If the central computer fails, data collection can continue.

Hybrid Systems: Several systems combine attributes of both interactive and batch modes. The most common are radio frequency systems and batch/interactive hybrids. Radio frequency systems use RF signals to connect portable readers to a central computer in an interactive manner. This gives the advantages of an interactive system combined with portability. There are different types of RF:

The simplest RF barcode device is a portable scanner that communicates with a single receiver connected to a computer or terminal.

Another type of RF system connects a portable to a typical computer network through an RF access point. This has the ability to "roam" from one access point to another. The range could be virtually unlimited, depending on the number of access points.

Using local batch processing combined with an interactive link to a central computer are batch/Interactive hybrids. These work primarily as interactive systems, but the can function independently for a period of time if the central computer fails. Best used for mission-critical applications where data collection is essential. While most batch systems simply upload data to a central computer, dual mode batch systems can also download data from the computer to the batch system and use it for data verification. Not quite as good as real-time interactive systems, but better than straight batch systems. Multiple interactive systems connect more than one interactive system to a network. Therefore, if one computer fails, another can still manage critical parts of the system.

Barcode systems require three elements:

Origin: There must be a source of barcodes. These can be preprinted or printed on demand.

Reader: There must be a reader to read the barcodes into the computer. This includes an input device to scan the barcode, a decoder to convert the symbology to ASCII text, and a cable to connect the device to your computer.

Computer system: There must be a system to process the barcode input. Can be single-user, multi-user, or network systems.