What's in a digit?

Quite a lot if you're talking about bar codes. That may be one reason why the 2005 Sunrise Date for North American Retailers, a voluntary initiative to encourage U.S. and Canadian retailers to update their databases to read the longer 13- and 14-digit bar codes used outside of North America, has stirred up quite a fuss.

An updated database will reduce the hassles of doing business in North America for off-shore manufacturers by expanding the number of bar codes that can be recognized by information systems.

To read some media accounts, however, you would think the world as we know it is going to be replaced by one of bar code mayhem. Those fears are unfounded, say experts.

"We're not suggesting that companies scrap their computer systems, and this isn't going to stop people from doing business," says Alan Garton, director of general merchandise retail for the Uniform Code Council (937-435-3870, www.uc-council.org), the organization that administers retail bar codes in the U.S.

So what's going on? For 30 years, North American retailers have used a 12-digit U.P.C. bar code label at the point of sale. Everyone else uses a 13-digit EAN bar code for item tracking, and a 14-digit global trade item number (GTIN) for shipping.

The problem isn't in your hardware: all but the oldest scanning devices can already read a 14-digit number. The problem is in the databases. While many leading retailers who get more and more of their merchandise from overseas have already updated their systems, smaller retailers and manufacturers are still using legacy databases that only recognize the 12-digit U.P.C. code. That means that manufacturers shipping into the U.S. must re-label their products, or the retailers must devise workarounds to accommodate the extra digits or key-in data, slowing down transaction times.

"This is a problem that we've known about for years," says Rick Bushnell, founder of InsightU.org, and a leading ADC expert who writes a column for Modern Materials Handling . "But instead of updating their databases, too many companies have treated their systems like a leaky roof, and just put a patch on. Eventually, you're going to have to do it right."

And that's really what the Sunrise initiative is about -encouraging retailers to update their databases to accommodate 13-digits by January 1, 2005.

Bushnell, however, urges any company getting on the bandwagon to go one step further, and update to accommodate 14-digits.

"Expanding your database to recognize a 14-digit bar code will allow you to identify a product in its shipping container as well as at the point of sale," says Bushnell. "In the future this is going to be important to anyone doing business on a global basis."

A 14-digit database will also read the new 14-digit Reduced Space Symbology for small item identification now in development.

For more information on the 2005 Sunrise initiative, go to InsightU web site at www.insightu.org/courses/support_a206.htm.