Blog Post

Are Unreadable Barcodes Slowing Down Your Logistics Chain?

egough • May 30, 2019

Barcodes have greatly helped with supply chain logistics but if they are unreadable can greatly hurt it.

unreadble barcodes
unreadable barcodes

The use of barcodes has become ubiquitous around the world over. It has not only revolutionized the process of selling and purchasing, but has also reduced costs for retailers and shop owners.

Hence, when there are inadequacies and faults in the barcodes, it leads to a number of problems. Simple issues like too much light or improper printing can easily create a problem. This compromises the ability of scanners to read the coded information. Moreover, checking them manually for quality control is a time-taking task.

Scroll down to read the 5 benefits that barcode validation/verification provide.

1. Reducing Production Costs

Faulty barcodes can put a complete stop to production lines and cause a lot of downtime. This is not acceptable for manufacturing businesses which move on tight schedules and cannot afford slowdowns. This thus, increases production costs a lot. Barcode validation catches faulty non-ISO standard barcodes and rejects them, making sure that the quality of the products is not compromised.

2. Eliminating Repetition

The only way to check faulty barcodes is through manual scanning which consumes time and is an inefficient use of staff. Verification with machines can easily speed up this process, reducing repetition and associated costs.

3. Preventing Fines and Returns

Faulty barcodes are an offence and can rack up thousands in fines for retailers or end in refused or returned shipments. This can cause significant costs and losses for businesses of up to millions of dollars. Proper validation will ensure your deliveries always have proper barcodes and nothing like this happens.

4. Meeting Legal Requirements

Many products, like medicine or food, which are sensitive to human health require specialized standard barcodes that comply with the ISO regulations and can be traced from start to finish. This is to ensure that these products are safe for consumption. Validators will help ensure barcodes are ISO compliant and fulfill these demands.

5. User Safety

Proper barcodes are essential for tracking products from start to finish and thus catching faulty products of a batch. Proper validation will ensure that products with bad barcodes are not delivered to customers. Inadequate or faulty batches can easily be recalled. This will increase user safety.

The Future

Standardized, validated, and verified barcodes are the future. Technology like Printronix ODV-2D thermal label barcode printerwill upgrade your barcode printing systems for the future and keep them updated and secure.

See the Printronix ODV-2D in action by watching video below.


MIDCOM specializes in thermal label barcode printers and barcode scanners. Talk to a Printer & Barcode Technology Specialist now (800) 643-2664 . We are here to help!

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