Bar code scanner enables remote data capture

RAY SMUTS DURBAN, indeed KwaZulu Natal, represents an important market for logistics and warehousing software company Macro 2000 which recently showcased its latest offerings to an ever-growing market. Highlight of the show, says marketing executive Anthea van Breemen, was the bar code scanning stock in and out of a store, especially with the latest PDAs, which allow for remote data capture and update of the system via radio frequency. Van Breemen says a certain Macro 2000 customer has taken scanning to a new level. “As stock comes off the manufacturing floor it is packed into boxes that have to be transferred to the sales warehouse, placed on a conveyor belt due to space restrictions and therefore run high above the floor between the two areas.” Before the boxes leave the factory it is essential they are bar coded, each specific label including the location within the warehouse at the other end of the conveyor belt. Another requirement is for the box to be weighed by a scale directly attached to the system which automatically updates the programme with this information, upon which the Macro software provides the next available location and produces a bar code. Van Breemen explains that as the labelled boxes are placed on the conveyor belt, they must pass a stationary scanner, attached to the conveyor belt, for identification. If the box scanned passes all the requirements it will carry on along the conveyor belt and the warehouse packer will simply put it in the correct location at the other end. In the event of the box not passing the requirements, it will be swept aside off the conveyor belt to an adjacent area and checked by factory staff to establish the defect. Once in the sales warehouse, the full boxes are scanned out into a picking area that is used to fulfil sales orders.