QR codes were earlier used to track vehicle bodies during their manufacture. And even earlier to that, the barcodes did the same job but due to their one-dimensional information holding capacity, they got obsolete and are not so much in trend nowadays.
QR code is a 2-dimensional information carrier and a player of the enterprise industry today with a pattern that carries information regarding the locator, identifier, and the website or an application it is concerned with.
The other main subject of this article is ‘inventory management’. Thus, to understand the significance of QR codes in the enterprise mobility services then first we have to know the significance of inventory control management and why barcodes are required to be replaced with the QR codes there?
Why inventory management even require a QR code?
An inventory is not something always of a small size warehouse. It could be way bigger than our imagination if the production capacity of the industry is too high. Also, an inventory could be diversified into multiple stages and categories like-
- Inventory for raw material
- Inventory for semi-finished goods
- Inventory for finished goods
- Inventory for auxiliary goods
- Inventory for defective goods, etc.
Thus, there is a possibility of finding similar products in such inventories, and to identify each item or a good with a unique identification identity, something is required which is not just a unique number but can also store some information regarding its destination, the sender as well as the receiver.
There exist inventory management solutions that integrate with the overall industrial management solutions and results equally cost-effective for the industry.
Why Barcodes are replaced with QR codes?
To understand this in the shortest possible time, keep this fact in mind that a barcode can be the same on three different products, but a QR code would be always unique. Thus, it provides better traceability as well as a larger capacity to store the information comparatively.
Thus, the barcodes are replaced and have become obsolete post the introduction of QR codes into the enterprise industry.
ADVANTAGES of having a QR code within inventory management
Key- Advantages of QR Codes –
- Easy to Scan
- 100x Information Storing Capacity
- Correction Ability
- Unique Identity
- URLs, Geo-Coordinates
- It is ideal to have such a code that would not just be a number only. QR code is the one that satisfied the requisite demand of the enterprise industry and fulfilled the requirements being such a pattern in two dimensions that can act more than just being a number.
A QR code can track even the prices of the products. And can store way more information than just this including the date of packaging or delivery, the lot size, the serial number related to the product individually, and much more that can be considered crucial for an inventory holder/manager.
- In any industry, there are managers for tools and equipment. They are supposed to handover and get the hardware back from the workers, which has the most tendency of getting the barcodes ruined by the end of the day due to the laborious work they perform.
Thus, to read a disturbed bar-code is always a matter of headache.
QR codes have correction abilities embedded within, because of which they can be read even if the code is partially visible or got a bit messy due to industrial work.
This is comprehensive for those who happen to be the tools and equipment manager some time and carries way more worth for them than others.
- QR codes do not require heavy scanners like barcodes. And thus, are more desirable to deploy within the industrial circulation. Even a mobile can read a bar-code and therefore, it would be quite cost-efficient to have them in against barcodes that are already scarce in performance.
Deployment of mobile to scan a QR code seems an expensive investment but a mobile then serves way more purposes than a barcode scanner. It can store enormous data, can integrate with the in-house ERP software and logistics solutions software for easy communication.
- EASE OF USE: A QR code allows the scanner to scan it from any angle. With the even faster rate at the plane parallel to its own plane. A barcode doesn’t render this flexibility to the user.
Also, it reduces the chances of error detection that arrives when scanning a barcode gets the background in the scanning area of the scanner. A QR code renders a way better degree of freedom over its ease of use in comparison to a barcode.
- In terms of storing the information, QR codes can store the URLs too along with the text adequate to pass the necessary information to the front user. Moreover, it is known to have saved the geo-coordinates of the provider such that it can carry the location-based information as well.
We should not wonder if we are wondering now for what we are using till now before the QR codes have welcomed themselves into the industry.
- In terms of capacity, most industries or organizations face the issue of running out of capacity in the case of barcode usage. Here, in the case of QR codes, an organization may find a better range of limits for the overall capacity in comparison to the barcodes.
Summarizing shortly with the surveyed as well as technically proven benefits of the QR codes over the Barcodes. Some of them are like, the QR code is said to store more than 100 times information that can be stored within a one-dimensional barcode.
And of course, it is cost-effective to have mobile phones deployed instead of just scanners as mobile phones can render a lot more than the latter. It would not only function for scanning but also helps in recording the goods and supplies at every point of exchange.
A wireless device is always preferred over a heavy wired set of singular functioning devices. The cloud computing consulting services on the other end, parallelly help in handling and storing unlimited data. Only mobile phones could be the device capable of handling both the cloud as well as inventory management software solutions altogether.
Never miss adopting a smarter solution when it has arrived in the market, as you may regret investing once but would never regret later with its results later. QR codes are such technologies that you should not delay in deploying them within the organization or industry for overall cost reduction and better inventory management.
