Why Printed Bar Codes Are Key to Today’s Automotive Supply Chain

Component and part traceability is now vital to every aspect of the automotive supply chain—from manufacturing, inventory management, and order fulfillment to reverse logistics and recall management.

At Barcom, we partner with companies like Zebra Technologies, a leader in bar coding and RFID, to help automotive suppliers and automakers improve operations. With the power of Zebra’s bar coding technology, you can track and trace everything that moves through your supply chain.  From raw materials at the receiving dock to components, sub-assemblies, finished goods, shipments, and even parts in an individual vehicle, we can empower you with total visibility into your supply chain.

How Bar Coding Powers Automotive Supply Chain Performance
Bar Coding is the most affordable way to avoid disruptions and ensure seamless supply chain performance. It allows tracking and tracing of each part and component at the item level, on the assembly line, in a carton, on the shelf, and even in a vehicle.  Integrated with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, warehouse management system (WMS), or customer relationship management (CRM) software, bar coding transforms into an incredibly powerful solution that yields benefits in virtually every aspect of supply chain and manufacturing operations.

Total Demand Chain Visibility
With total visibility of your supply chain, you can ensure your incoming deliveries are in transit or arriving, the right inventory is available, production is scheduled, goods are tracked at each stage of manufacturing, and accurate shipments are delivered on time to your customers.

Receiving & Put-Away
At the receiving dock, bar codes not only allow goods to be received and automatically recorded in a tracking system, but also direct workers to deliver goods directly to a production line or place them in specific put-away locations.

Inventory Staging and Tracking
With printed bar codes, workers can store the items and scan a separate shelf label to verify placement. Each scan leads the user to the next task and updates the host system. Workers can easily print a bar code label with all the required information at the warehouse entrance.

Streamlined Production
With the ability to track everything from raw materials to finished goods, production and quality can be traced to the exact manufacturing stage and individual part. In the event of an issue, affected products can be quickly traced and identified at the pallet, box, and item level—enabling corrective action or targeted recalls.

Make-to-Order Manufacturing
Applying bar codes allows work-in-process ticketing and tracking, which ensures that the right parts are put together and assembled. Labels can be placed directly on items to identify each component and sub-assembly, match serial numbers, track each lot and step of the manufacturing process, and even automate routing and assembly operations.

Improved Shipping
Bar code labeling allows automotive suppliers to create shipping labels at the time of production rather than picking time. This can remove bottlenecks, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency.

Accurate Quality Control
At various stages in the workflow process, bar code labels allow accurate sample tracking and improved quality assurance. Defects can be quickly identified and traced to the lot or item level, which minimizes scrap and rework and improves quality output.

Lot Tracking
Bar coding enables a higher level of lot tracking. This facilitates targeted recalls of parts or specific vehicles and can potentially save automakers and vendors millions in costs and damages.

Looking to Get Started or Upgrade?  These are just some of the ways that bar coding is helping today’s automotive suppliers achieve optimal supply chain performance.  If you would like to learn more about bar code labeling systems and how they can help your business, contact us today to speak with one of our technical experts who can provide further insight into your application, help you evaluate your current system, or even walk you through the steps to improving workflow performance with bar code automation.

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