I am looking into implementing barcoding into our production and warehouse and am relatively new to both Epicor and barcoding so I’m not quite sure where to start. I’ve been doing some research but seem to be struggling to find any helpful information from recent years so I thought I would see what kind of helpful advice/tips actual customers/users might have.
We are currently in the very early stages of planning and implementing, so specifics of this project are still very limited. We are looking at using BarTender or Code 128 to generate our barcodes and are ordering the Honeywell scanners directly through Epicor.
In other words, I think that setting the barcode system, in itself, will be relatively seamless but integrating it with Epicor will be a complex process. If anyone has any advice/tips that they would be willing to share with their experience in implementing something like this, it would be extremely appreciated!
I’m no expert, but have recently been down this route. Perhaps you have already read post Human Readable Barcode Font. If not, it makes a couple of good points. It mentions why Code 39 is preferred to Code 128. The barcode font in the Out of Box (OoB) SSRS reports are all DataWorks DW39. It comes with Epicor; you just have to add it to the report server. The “Print Bar Codes” checkbox on
Company Configuration>Modules>Material>Inventory>General tab under Options will cause all SSRS Reports with barcodes to print barcodes. If you don’t want to deploy barcodes everywhere, leave that box unchecked and check it at the Print SSRS dialog box for those reports on which you do want barcodes to print. I found it necessary to move some fields around, for example on the Job Traveler, the OoB SSRS report placed the Job and the Asm (assembly sequence) fields next to one another. I found it necessary to move the Asm barcode to the right of the report so that the two fields could be scanned independent of each other. I have had good luck with Symbol LS2208 1d barcode scanners. There’s a lot of information on this site for integrating Bartender with Epicor. It seems like labeling, and barcoding are joined at the hip, and are limited only by one’s imagination.
@Hbormann
I’ve done barcode implementations with Epicor many times over the last 10+ years and I would agree with @Rookie, he’s spot on with everything.
In all cases but one, I have never needed Bartender and have almost always used Code 39, which is included with Epicor as a font.
If you can avoid doing any type of encoding and just wrap the values with asterisks and set the font to Code 39, then you can just scan directly into the Epicor form field.
You can get away with using SSRS with label printers, it can just be a bit tricky getting the SSRS RDL form setup right and you do need to customize the SSRS labels for your needs.
But I would say that 80%-90% of what you need is already in Epicor and it just needs to be tweaked to your printers and environment.
If you are using handhelds with Epicor Handheld (classic) or the mobile warehouse you will need to configure the handheld device to scan the right type of barcode (Code39) the right way and perhaps had a ‘postamble’ to the scan to automatically move you to the next field.
Another trick on the Part Number end of things is that built into Epicor are many cross references that are automatically checked for when you enter any value into any Part Number field, they include:
Internal Part Cross References (great if you have older codes or part numbers)
Alternate Parts (when inactive)
Supplier Part Numbers
Customer Part Numbers
Any setup Product Codes in Part Entry (UPC, EAN, etc)
This means that if you have these cross references entered in Epicor you can often times scan those barcodes and Epicor will find the match to your part number (say scan a supplier part number on one of their packages).
There is a lot to this topic and the hungups can be in the details.
Reach out if you have more questions.
We also use Code39, but SSRS is meh at best with label printers. Bartender is better suited for that, and current versions have an API so you don’t have to do file drops like a caveman.
@Rookie Check out internal part cross reference. Epicor out of the box has cross reference functionality (customer, vendor, and internal) that will replace the part number from the cross reference with the master part number. So you could set the UPC number up in internal part cross reference, then when you type (or barcode) that number in, epicor does a lookup to the master part number and auto replaces it. It’s tangentially related to barcodes, in that the UPC is generally a barcode, but since barcoding is simply a keyboard wedge, it’s the same functionality.
FYI… I have a love hate (mostly hate) with cross reference functionality, as Epicor like to grab random stuff and populate the cross references, so “Box 12 inch” is really just a place holder, but gets set as a cross reference for a bunch on different parts and confuses the S*** out of the users.
That being said, I can see the UPC working very nicely since the numbers are unique.
I wouldn’t recommend using Internal Cross Reference for standard Product Codes like UPC, EAN, etc as Epicor provides native support for these under the Part UOM’s.
By definition, standardized Product Codes like UPC are/can be UOM specific… for instance the UPC code for a Gallon of Milk vs a Quart of Milk (same part, different UOM) would be a different UPC code, which is why they are setup per UOM. But you can set the same UPC on each of the UOM’s of the Part if that’s needed. You can also reference these values to print on labels if needed.
This is more a process type question - at what point should the material barcode label be printed to stick on the incoming materials (on the box, package, etc.)?
Currently, the receiving process is:
Receive materials in back door, at the end of day they record all received materials and follow the standard process for recording the receipt of goods (create the pack slip, count & record the material, match to PO, etc.)
At that point, they want to temporarily keep the materials in the receiving area, probably until the next day. When all materials are receipted, they will jump on the forklift and distribute the materials to various racks around the warehouse. All the “bin locations” in these racks are already labeled with a location barcode.
They want to scan the material barcode and then scan the bin location barcode to place the materials in that bin location in Epicor.
Does this make any sense? Personally I have issues with holding the materials in “no where land” until they decide to physically place the materials in the right location.
Ah, sorry, I didn’t understand you weren’t live yet.
I believe you can print labels at the time of receipt. I don’t remember if the stock label template has the bin location on it. I believe that if you use material queue to make put away requests, the label prints out the bin that it’s supposed to go to. Then when you process the request, the actual move happens. But it’s been a long time since I’ve looked at that.
The OoB Receiving label does include the Warehouse and Bin fields. If the part is one that you maintain in inventory, and you put it in the same WH Bin every time, make that the Primary Bin for the part, and that location will print on the receiving label. If you have to move some of that part to a different location (overflow), you will be required to do the Inventory Transfer to track how much is where.
If the receipt is to a Job, that’s a different animal altogether. That’s WIP (Material) and requires the Advanced Material Management module. The first time around I got an “F” in AMM and am in the remedial summer school class and thinking of dropping the subject.
