I consult for a number of companies, and most of them have established compliance programs that deal with product identification and electronic files for transmitting orders and shipping notices. The benefits of such programs – using bar codes for carton and product identification together with electronic documents – are enormous and well documented.

But I must say that the level of true supply chain efficiency that most of those companies have achieved is deplorable. In fact, fewer than 20 percent of the companies in the most advanced supply channel that I am familiar with are using end-to-end communications and linking electronic files to bar codes on boxes.

I am blown away! All this talk about "supply chain management" and the huge emphasis on warehouse management systems and enterprise systems...and yet fewer than 20 percent of companies are actually integrating them. WOW! It's as if we had invented the telephone and created a global telephone network, but people were still only talking over the back fence.

As I dug into this issue, I found that many companies believe that the level of modification that would be necessary to enable their own systems to use bar codes and advanced ship notices is too costly to provide a good return on investment. I also found that, although meeting customer demands (like putting bar codes on boxes and items) was a priority for those companies, using bar codes and other automatic data capture technologies to reduce costs was not! I feel like I'm back in 1995, still trying to explain the need for high quality data and the fact that it only comes with automated data entry; i.e. bar codes, radio frequency identification (RFID), magnetic stripe and electronic data interchange (EDI).

Everyone says that their business is down and profits are off. Isn't that the time to see where you can cut costs? Shouldn't companies be planning to use existing standards and computer and communications capabilities to drive down those costs?

I really want to know why more companies are not doing this. Is it because your system can't handle bar code data input? Is it because you can't electronically enter a shipping order from a customer or send one to a supplier? Is it because you can't use a shipping notice from your supplier? Are you not aware of the compliance standards in your particular industry? Or is it because you are using bar codes in some places in your facility, but top management (and perhaps you) thinks there's nothing more that can be done?

No one seems to know what might be holding up greater use of the bar code/EDI link. I'm hoping that you can tell me. I have never asked my readers to do anything for me before, but here is what I'd like you to do. Please drop me an e-mail and tell me: If you are not placing and receiving orders electronically and then matching shipments or receipts to electronic files using bar codes, why not?