Barcode - Product’s unique Identification.
When a customer purchases something, he always looks at the name printed on the packaging, but a storekeeper will see the unique barcode printed on the packaging. This is so because he is more interested in the details such as its manufacturing date or its expiring date. Once a pharmaceutical company faced a problem. They found out that one of their particular batches of medicines is not suitable for the use it has been prescribed for, now they had to take that particular medicine of the shelves. It could have been a difficult task, as this batch was now mixed with the other normal batches. So what they did is that they took all of that medicine from the market’s shelves within a night, brought it back to the company’s storeroom. Placed all of it on a conveyor. With some temporary modifications in the automation systems installed in the storeroom. But this time the scanner wasn’t storing information. It was identifying the batch details from the barcode printed on the back off every box of medicines and when ever the barcode of medicine from the disputed batch was read by the scanner, it beeped, letting the worker know that this medicine is from the disputed batch. So the workers separated the medicines in just one day & the medicine was made available within a day through out the market. So with the help of the barcode system the time that could have been used was saved but most importantly the good name of the company was unharmed.