Barcodes and Location Labels: Control Tools for Remote Owners

An owner abroad cannot walk the aisles. He sees the warehouse through photographs, tables and the words of others, and all three are far easier to trust when the warehouse itself is readable. Labels do that. A code on a rack, a number on a pallet and a barcode on a carton turn "somewhere near the door" into a place that can be named, photographed and counted again next month. They make every later count faster, and they give each photograph a reference point that nobody can dispute.

What to label, and in what order

Start with the cheapest and most useful, and move down the list only as far as you need.

1. Location labels: every rack, bay, level and floor zone gets a code. A code such as B-07-3 can mean aisle B, bay 07, level 3.
2. Pallets: a unique number on each pallet, on two adjacent sides.
3. Items and cartons: a master code, but only where the manufacturer's barcode is missing, unreliable or not unique.
4. Status zones: separate places for damaged, returned and held goods, each with its own sign.

Locations come first because they give the biggest benefit for the least effort. Once locations are fixed, a count can follow the labels rather than the memory of the storekeeper.

How labels help the owner abroad

• A photograph that shows a location label proves where it was taken, and it can be set beside last month's photograph of the same place.
• A count sheet arranged by location lets a second counter start from the label, without anyone's guidance, and makes it hard to skip a bay.
• A release order that quotes a pallet number and a location can be checked at the dock, so that the wrong pallet cannot leave unnoticed.
• A difference in a report can be traced to a location, which turns "something is missing" into "look at B-07-3".
• Photographs sent from far away become comparable with one another, because each one carries its own address.

Keep labels readable

Labels that cannot be read are worse than no labels, because they give a false sense of order.

• Choose durable material. Dust, damp and cold destroy cheap paper. Plain thermal paper can fade in warm light, so ask the supplier of the label about its life.
• Make the location code large enough to read in a photograph taken from two or three metres, with the number printed in plain digits beside the barcode.
• Place labels consistently, at the same height and on the same face of the rack beam, so that the eye learns where to look.
• Never stick a new label over an old one. Remove the old one, or the reader will find two answers and not know which to believe.
• Name one person to replace damaged labels, and keep a stock of spares.

What to avoid at the start

• Do not label everything at once. Run a pilot on one aisle for a week, then expand.
• Do not invent a clever code. Keep it short, fixed in length, and free of characters that are easily mistaken, such as the letter O and the digit 0.
• Do not re-label items that already carry a reliable manufacturer barcode; link your master code to it in the mapping table instead.
• Do not buy special equipment before the basics are settled. A printer, a phone camera and a spreadsheet are enough to start, and scanning can follow later.
• Do not change a code once it is printed. If a rack moves, retire its label and issue a new one.

An example (conditional figures)

A warehouse has 6 aisles, 20 bays per aisle and 4 levels, which makes 480 locations. Each gets a code such as B-07-3, and each pallet gets a number such as P-004512. A release order now reads: "Release P-004512 from B-07-3." The storekeeper at the dock reads the label on the pallet, and the owner abroad, shown a photograph with the label in the frame, sees at once that the pallet that left is the pallet that was asked for. Printing 480 labels is a modest task; the real work is agreeing the scheme and fixing the labels straight.

In short

Labels cost little and repay it at every count. WarehouseDepo places labels and barcodes on locations and items, so that each later count is faster and less prone to error, and so that your photographs show exactly where they were taken.