Ready, set, capture data
Materials handling efficiency jumps ahead with product advancements from the automatic data capture industry showcased at ScanTech 99.
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 11/1/1999
The $12 billion automatic data capture (ADC) industry had it's day, actually four days, last month when the world's biggest players in the ADC industry came together for ScanTech 99 in Chicago, Ill.The 18th annual conference, held on the 25th anniversary of the first bar code scanner at the supermarket point of sale, gathered together thousands of attendees and 300 exhibitors. Some of the products displayed at the show included:
- Bar code scanners, readers, and printers
- Warehouse management systems
- Radio frequency identification tags , and readers
- Radio frequency data communications terminals
- Biometric devices
"The bar code has become the world's most prominent icon for gathering, processing, and tracking information in virtually every industry in the world," says Andrew Cary, ScanTech 99 show manager. "The functionality of bar codes has exploded until today they are found on virtually every consumer product sold in the world and every carton or package that moves in air or ground transportation."
"Today's make-to-order manufacturing environment requires unit level traceability and component level work-in-process tracking," adds Carey. "This is best accomplished by using data collection on the assembly line to capture that information and update the manufacturing software in real time."
Those who did not attend ScanTech missed the number of suppliers who exhibited smart labels or intelligent labels. These labels merge two-ply bar code labels with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. In-formation on these labels can be changed up to 100,000 times, and at least 50 labels can be read simultaneously.
"I think we'll see smart labels on reusable containers used for order fulfillment very soon," says Clive Hohberger of Zebra Technologies. "This technology supplements bar coding equipment to reap the benefits of both technologies."
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