Cost effective inventory management using the GS1 UPC / EAN code.

Requirement: I have a sweet shop and we use the barcode based weighing scale to weight and sell sweets. In our retail outlets we also sell pre bar-coded branded items like Pepsi -2L, 300 ml, mineral water etc. Now they all come with a standard barcode. Instead of putting our barcode on such items we want to use the standard barcodes printed at the time of manufacturing.

The benefits of the using the standards barcode are

• It saves the cost of label and ribbon to print your own barcode
• Saves on manpower cost to paste the barcode on the products
• Faster stock in – as you do not have to paste barcode labels
• Error less operations.\

Some of the frequently asked question about using the GS1 code

FAQ: Do these barcodes change over time?

For example a Coca Cola 1.5l is having a barcode say 8901764012105 will remain the same or does it vary at every lot?

Answer:  Generally GS1 code remains the same during the life cycle of that SKU (Stock keeping unit). However it is advisable to follow the practices outlined in “Identifying and creating the SKUs at the Point of Purchase using product barcode.”

FAQ: How can we incorporate these barcodes so that FusionRetail 6 seamlessly accept these?
Answer:  The concept is to scan the barcode in the “user defined code” of the related product master.  Please follow these steps:

1. Open product master (main  M I P)
2. Open a product (e.g Coca Cola 1.5l)  in modify mode using  Alt + L3
3. 
4. Go to the “user defined code” field and scan the standard barcode of the product.
5. Also set “Print Bacode = No”. This helps you to segregate the products having standard barcode from the products without having the barcode.
6. Save
7. Now go to the POS and scan the product where you used to scan your printed barcode.
8. Also follow the practices outlined in “Identifying and creating the SKUs at the Point of Purchase using product barcode.”

Related readings

1.  How to utilize the GS1 (UPC / EAN) barcode at the time of receiving the goods?
2.  FusionRetail 6 Product Code& Barcode 
3.  Identifying and creating the SKUs at the Point of Purchase. 
4.  How Can I Set Default Scan as User Defined Code for All Inventory Transactions?