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Standards:
UCC/EAN-128
UCC/EAN
Application Identifiers and the UCC/EAN-128 Symbology
The
success of the EAN·UCC system for the identification of products
and services led to increasing requests from the user companies
for an expansion of the system beyond primary identification. In
response to these demands, EAN·UCC has focused its activities
on the development of solutions enabling companies to encode, in
bar code form, more information than basic identification. This
type of supplementary information (such as, best before date, batch
number, etc.) can be used to improve the management of the supply
chain.
The
goal is to have a global and open system that meets the requirements
of business.
The
two main components of any bar code are data architecture and symbology.
EAN/UCC Application Identifier
What is an EAN/UCC Application Identifier (AI)?
What are the benefits of EAN/UCC Application
identifiers ?
What data can be encoded using EAN/UCC Application
Identifiers ?
THE
UCC/EAN-128 Symbology
What are the benefits of the UCC/EAN-128 symbology
?
What is UCC/EAN-128's format ?
EAN/UCC
Application Identifier
- What
is an EAN/UCC Application Identifier (AI) ?
An
Application Identifier is a prefix used to identify the meaning
and the format of the data that follows it (data field).
AIs have been defined for identification, traceability data, dates,
quantity, measurements, locations, and many other types of information.
The data presented can be alphanumeric or numeric.
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Example
AI
10 identifies a batch number with a data format an..20.
This means that the data field following the two digit AI
10 will always be a batch number of variable length but
not exceeding twenty alphanumeric characters.
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What are the benefits of EAN/UCC Application
identifiers ?
-
-
An
open standard
EAN/UCC
Application Identifiers provide an open standard which can be
used and understood by all companies in the trading chain, regardless
of the company that originally issued the codes.
A
stable standard
To
meet business needs, new AIs are made available in standardised
form. The construction of the system guarantees its integrity.
New AIs can be released without affecting existing users. Companies
wishing to include new functionalities can easily incorporate
new AIs in their existing system.
What
data can be encoded using EAN/UCC Application Identifiers ?
A
large number of AIs covering the majority of industry requirements
have already been defined. The principal AI categories include
:
Identification
numbers
These AIs contain data to identify:
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an
item, the data field includes the EAN-8, EAN-13 or EAN-14
item identification number. |
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a
logistic unit, which must be given a unique serial
number called the Serial
Shipping Container Code (SSCC). It provides companies
with a facility to identify logistic units (pallets,drums,
rolls) for tracking and tracing purposes. |
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a
returnable asset, the data field includes the EAN-13
number of the asset plus an optional serial number. |
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Example
of a SSCC and a "Ship to" code
AI
00
- Serial Shipping Container Code
Data format : n18
AI 00 identifies uniquely individual transport packages
to support tracking and reception operations with the
use of EDI.
AI
420 - Ship to (deliver to) postal code
Data format : an..20
AI 420 can facilitate shipment sorting, consolidation
and general automated package handling.
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(00)
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354123451234567892
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(420)
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1000
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Traceability
Numbers and Dates
These
AIs enable to encode data which provides for the traceability
of individual products and/or despatch units throughout the
supply chain and the maximum efficiency of recall procedures.
This category includes Batch/Lot Number, Serial Number, Production
Date, Minimum Durability Date and Maximum Durability Date.
Measurements
and Quantities
These AIs enable to encode quantities and trade measurements
for items which may vary in content (quantity, length, weight,
etc.) and logistical measurements for warehouse space management
systems and transportation services.
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Example
of a variable weight despatch unit and its net weight
of 35.5 kilograms
AI 01 - GTIN
Data Format : n14
AI 3100 to 3109 - Net weight, kilograms (the last digit
in the AI is a decimal point indicator)
Data format : n6
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(01)
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91234567890121
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(3101)
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000355
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Transaction
References and Location
Numbers
These AIs enable the encoding of transaction references and
location numbers facilitating the delivery/order/invoice reconciliation
process, identifying shipping origin, sorting shipments, etc.
Such AIs include Customer's Purchase Order Number, Bill to (invoice
to) Location Number and Ship to (deliver to) postal code.
The
UCC/EAN-128 Symbology
The
symbology specified for the representation of Application Identifier
data is UCC/EAN-128, a variant of 'Code 128', which use is exclusively
reserved to EAN International and the Uniform Code Council (UCC).
It
is excellent in hospital or logistic applications but it is not
intended to be used for data to be scanned at the point of sales
in retail outlets.
- What
are the benefits of the UCC/EAN-128 symbology?
UCC/EAN-128
offers 3 major advantages, it is:
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Complete:
It is one of the most complete, alphanumeric, one-dimensional
symbologies available today. The use of three different character
sets (A, B and C), facilitates the encoding of the full 128 ASCII
character set.
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Compact: Code 128 is one of
the most compact linear bar code symbologies. Character set C
enables numeric data to be represented in a double density mode.
Here, two digits are represented by only one symbol character
saving valuable space.
- Concatenatable:
This enables to combine multiple AIs and their fields into a single
bar code.
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Reliable: Code 128 symbols
use two independent self-checking features which improves printing
and scanning reliability..
- What
is UCC/EAN-128's format ?
UCC/EAN-128
bar codes always contain a special non-data character known as function
1 (FNC 1), which follows the start character of the bar code. It
enables scanners and processing software to auto-discriminate between
UCC/EAN-128 and other bar code symbologies, and subsequently only
process relevant data.
The
UCC/EAN-128 bar code is made up as follows:
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a
light margin |
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a
start character A, B or C |
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a
FNC 1 character |
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Data
(Application Identifier + data field)
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a
symbol check character |
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a
stop character |
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a
light margin
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