Many clients come to me asking about bar coding, but I often have to explain how it works. So, here goes what I believe is a concise explanation. A bar code is a bunch of lines and spaces. Bar code symbiology is what makes up a bar code. Some common ones are Code 139 and Code 28 and UPC. Each symbiology is common in certain areas (for example, UPC is common in the retail industry). To have a bar coding solution, you first have to ask what you want to do. In a distribution environment, bar coding can be used to receive product, ship product, transfer product, do physical counts, and inventory issues. In a manufacturing environment, you can use bar coding for capturing movement of production jobs from work center to work center, as well as capture labor time. In a retail environment, you can use bar coding to scan sales and receive returns. To have a “bar code solution”, you most likely will need a reader (wireless allows the most flexibility) to scan bar codes a printer to print bar codes. Often, larger companies need multiple readers or printers. Another type of a bar code solution is simply to replace the keyboard strokes by reading a bar code. In this situation, a bar code reader is tethered to a computer, and the user can either use the keyboard or scan a bar code (which of course is usually much faster).