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.