What is the role of the GS1 focused on barcode usages?
GS1 is a global organization that develops and maintains standards for business communication and identification, including the use of barcodes. Most of its work goes into developing and implementing the GS1 system, a set of global standards for identifying products, capturing their data and sharing that information along the supply chain.
For barcodes, GS1 provides standards for how the symbols are designed and used, so that they stay readable and scannable across different systems and technologies. These barcode standards cover a wide range of applications, including retail, healthcare and logistics.
Key barcode standards developed by GS1 include the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), which uniquely identifies a product, and the Global Location Number (GLN), which identifies a physical location such as a warehouse, store or hospital. GS1 also provides standards for barcode symbologies, such as the EAN/UPC barcode used in retail, the DataMatrix barcode used in healthcare and the GS1-128 barcode used in logistics.
By developing and promoting these standards, GS1 aims to make supply chain operations more efficient and accurate, to cut costs, and to improve the customer experience by keeping product information accurate and easy to reach.