A Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode which nowadays contains black stripes of varying thickness and a 12-digit number represents data in a visual, machine-readable way. It is used for tasks also referred to as automatic identification and data capture (AIDC).

Last year at Impact Network, our Operation Coordinators moved from written tag numbers to scanning barcodes on equipment at our schools when verifying the equipment’s condition. This was possible because of the invention of barcodes!

The barcode was invented by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver and patented in the US in 1951. But it took over twenty years before this invention became commercially successful thanks to the use in automated supermarket check-out systems. The barcode used in those systems was designed by George Laurer, an electrical engineer at IBM, using stripes rather than circles as in the originally designed version. And with this little adaption, the UPC barcode was born. Nowadays it is found on products all over the world.

In addition Laurer also developed the scanner that could read those codes digitally. The first product scanned, in Ohio in June 1974, was a packet of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum. When Laurer died at age 94 last December IBM said: “The UPC went on to revolutionize virtually every industry in the world.” As of 2019, UPC barcodes were being scanned more than 6 billion times each day, according to GS1 (a not-for-profit organization that develops and maintains global standards for business communication).

And just as Laurer made a tiny change, towards the end of last year, we decided to switch from barcodes to Quick Response (QR) codes for tagging our school equipment. QR codes are a specific type of matrix or two-dimensional (2D) barcode. So it is a further development, or rather, an adaption of the original version. They were first designed in 1994 for the automotive industry in Japan. The QR codes became popular due to its fast readability and greater storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes.

A clear benefit of the QR code is that 2D barcodes can be read or deconstructed using application software on mobile devices with inbuilt cameras, such as smartphones, while traditional barcodes need special optical scanners. One of our goals in 2020 for the Operations team is to refine the tool that makes it possible to accurately track each piece of equipment, making sure the equipment sits at its assigned school and is functioning well. This will make the repair process run even more smoothly, guaranteeing our schools to have the needed equipment available with as few interruptions as possible.

Our greater efficiency achieved through adaptation in our equipment tracking system supports each and every one working at Impact Network to provide quality primary education in Zambia – from our 200 teachers, all the way down to our 6,000 students.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” -Buckminister Fuller

- Cora Juettemann

Revolutionary ideas don’t need to be fundamental ideas...