[AT] This might come in handy while shopping for tractor parts

Wed Jan 19 10:31:54 PST 2011

Well it's obvious I don't know much about them but I will claim one bit of 
connection.  I had a good friend named J. Kitt Sawyer who was an electrical 
engineer with IBM in the NC Research Triangle.  He was on the team that 
invented the things.  Unfortunately he died suddenly a few years ago.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Gene's Wowway e-mail
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 12:24 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] This might come in handy while shopping for tractor parts

Dean, I enjoyed your recap of the UPC symbol.  I was on another side of the
UPC intro in the early 70s---flexible packaging, primarily food packaging
materials.  The grief we went through learning how to print those *&(&^$*
things is  unforgettable!!

-----Original Message----- 
From: Dean VP
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 10:52 AM
To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
Subject: Re: [AT] This might come in handy while shopping for tractor parts

Having spent much of my career in the Bar Code Industry I can comment on
this a bit. First when discussing Bar code one needs to identify the version
of Bar Code under discussion. In this case UPC is being discussed but there
are several versions of UPC Bar Code. In the USA and Canada the 12 digit
version (A) is used along with several shorter versions for specific
products, priced imbedded codes or variable weight products.  Libraries and
books have a version also. But the most generally common version in the US
(version A) is the 12 digit version. It Does Not contain a country of origin
identifier imbedded in the code. There is a version however that does have
an imbedded country of origin in it and that is the 13 digit version called
EAN (European Article Numbering) which obviously is used in Europe. I'm not
up to date on whether the convention is being followed religiously (retired
for 12 years) as to whether it is country of manufacturer or home country of
seller.

The UPC code is not a very strong error checking code and succeeds in the
grocery market w/o too many reading errors only because the code the scanner
reads also must be on file on the checkout scanning system's hard disk. This
reduces checkout errors to a level acceptable to users as well as customers.
There are more read errors in the checkout lanes than what the industry
prefers to talk about.

That level of error in reading is not acceptable for industrial applications
so other codes other than UPC were invented with stronger error checking
such as Interleaved 2 of 5, Code 11, Code 39, etc. Code 39 was widely used
in industrial applications because it is a fully alphanumeric code and has a
very low error rate whereas UPC is numeric only with a higher read error
rate. The UPC code needed to make some compromises to allow ease of printing
on multiple food product packaging materials, shapes and sizes. In many
cases industrial and some consumer applications have moved to using Higher
Density square codes. Where considerably higher density of information
within the code is achieved.  Now, industry is moving to RFID, Radio
Frequency Identification where a tag is attached to higher value products
and is read at a distance using RF signals. The tags have dropped in cost
over the last few years but are still too expensive to be used in low cost
products such as those sold in a grocery store.

I was Director of POS operations for a company that installed the second
grocery store UPC scanning system in the US in around 1973/74 time frame.
NCR was the first company to install a UPC Grocery Store scanning system in
the US at about the same time frame. At that time we were really pushing the
state of the current technology and things didn't always go as planned. Both
scanning as well as computer technology has improved dramatically since
then.  The capability improved dramatically quickly but something unusual
happened to slow things down in the Grocery industry for a while. This only
time in my life where I have seen this happen. The labor unions and the
consumers formed a coalition to try to stop the implementation of UPC code
and bar code scanning in grocery stores. Several false rumors were started
that confused the consumers about how accurate the systems were going to be
and how much the technology was going to reduce labor requirements within
the grocery industry. It took a few years to settle out and then there was a
rush to implement scanning by all grocery stores.

Grocery stores work on very thin profit margins so even a small improvement
in product pricing accuracy at the checkout stand has a dramatic impact on
the stores profitability.  Reducing a thing called "under-rings" at the
checkout stand would sometimes double store profits and pay for the scanning
equipment in just a few short months. In the 1973/74 time frame each
checkout lane with scanning cost about $80,000

Dean VP
Apache Junction, AZ

"If pilots' vision were as bad as economists', Amtrak would be profitable."

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Mike Sloane
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 8:18 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] This might come in handy while shopping for tractor parts

It is not true, unfortunately. See:

<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1824191/what_upc_barcode_numbers_mean.html>

Mike

On 1/19/2011 7:51 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or  China ?
>
> If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690, 691  or 692, the product is
> MADE IN CHINA.
> 471 is Made in  Taiwan .
>
> This is our right to know, but the government and related departments
> never
> educate the public, therefore we have to educate ourselves.
>
> Nowadays, Chinese businessmen know that consumers do not prefer products
> "MADE IN CHINA ", so they don't show from which country it is made.
>
> However, you may now refer to the barcode -remember if the first 3 digits
> are for China&  Taiwan , and most other countries have 2 digits:
>
> 00 - 09 ...   USA&   CANADA
> 690-691-692 ... MADE IN  CHINA
> 471  ... Made in TAIWAN
> 49 ... JAPAN
> 30 - 37 ...   FRANCE
> 40 - 44 ...   GERMANY
> 50 ...   UK
>
> BUY USA&  CANADIAN MADE by watching for "0"
> at the beginning of the number which is USA and “09” is Canada .
_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at

_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at

_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at 