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The UPC UCC Application Process The History of the Uniform Code Council The
History of the UPC
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 History of the UPC Bar Code and The Uniform Code Council, Inc. |
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HISTORY:
The Uniform Code Council, Inc. Originally
developed by request of grocers involved in the National Association of
Food Chains (originally called the Food and Grocery Chain Stores of
America), the story of how the UPC barcode went from supermarket to
worldwide acceptance in multiple aspects of trade and commerce is quite
interesting and intriguing. There were issues with the RCA/Kroger code, yet the grocery industry saw the potential and sought a standard coding scheme that would be open to all equipment manufacturers to use, and readily adopted by all food producers and dealers. The objective was to speed checkout and the initial idea to be able to pass the savings on to consumers. We design consumer packaging that sells, see our work now. More about UPC bar codes In 1969, the National Association of Food Chains (NAFC) tasked Logicon, Inc. with the creation of a proposal for an industry-wide bar code system which resulted in Parts 1 and 2 of the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code (UGPIC) in the summer of 1970. Based on the recommendations of Logicon's report, the U.S. Supermarket Ad Hoc Committee on a Uniform Grocery Product Code was formed. The original members of the
Ad Hoc Committee and their technical experts were: Associated Food Stores of Salt Lake
City Fairmont Foods Bristol Myers A &
P Super Valu
Stores
Winn-Dixie
Apparently
thinking ahead and beyond the scope of supermarkets, the Ad Hoc
Committee recommended to adopt a code, but not solely for the purpose of optimizing code scan check out systems.
(Today bar codes are used in applications that go far beyond checkout). Shortly afterwards, National Cash Register Company (now NCR) installed one of the first UPC bar code scanners at Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio. On June 26, 1974, the first product with a bar code, a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum, was scanned at a check-out counter at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio. A random event, this pack of gum was picked from the cart by a shopper (Clyde Dawson) who simply chose the gum first. Sharon Buchanan (now retired) was the cashier who made the first UPC scan. The pack of gum is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. The Troy store was chosen due to its proximity to Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp., which designed the checkout counter. The actual scanner used was from PSC Inc., and at the time cost $4,000 (the entire check-out counter cost $10,000). These days, PSC scanners cost about 1% of that. In
September of 1974
the UGPCC (Uniform Grocery Product Code
Council) - a corporation previously formed by the grocery industries' leading trade
associations - became the UPCC (Uniform Product Code Council). In May 1983, the UPCC agrees to administer the Uniform Communications Standards (UCS). UCS is an electronic data interchange (EDI) standard that permits computer to computer ordering and invoicing for the grocery and public warehousing industries. In November 1984, to reflect the administration of the new UCS standards, the UPCC (Uniform Product Code Council) becomes the Uniform Code Council, Inc. or UCC. The UCC has remained a privately held, non-profit, tax-exempt corporation and has continued to dramatically grow and expand into many market segments (aside from groceries) and remains the only US administrator of the UPC bar code (as well as other bar codes in use for coupons, logistics, medicines, and more). The
U.P.C. bar code, aside from speeding checkout, allowed retailers and manufacturers to manage and replenish inventory more efficiently, as well as automate many processes and operations, like special promotions, coupons, and product returns. In
2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated that pharmaceutical companies bar code their medicines down to the unit of dose so that they can be scanned in hospitals and endorsed Reduced Space Symbology as a means to reduce medication errors. In
2005, the UCC changed its name to GS1-US. See the GS1-US
Site. More history of the UCC is on the UCC web Site. If you need retail packaging design, click here. For all other types of advertising, promotion, business consulting and more, please click here to our home page. Note:
This article is of an editorial nature. All trademarks and copyrights are
owned by their respective owners. If you see errors or omissions, please contact
me so that I may make necessary corrections. I feel the history of the
bar code (as well as the future) is important and created this page since
I found little about this elsewhere. I am doing my best to cross-check and
verify information presented. Thanks - Rob Cummings. Bibliography
and sources: |
