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Morse code sometimes seems like a long-forgotten mode of communication in the world of cutting-edge technologies we live in today. But did you know that the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles, California utilizes Morse code translator to send out an ongoing message? 

Wikipedia states that the tower's blinking light spells out the word "Hollywood" in Morse code. And did you know that April 27th is celebrated as Morse Code Day every year? we’ll admit, we didn’t, but the topic is near and dear to me.  

My father worked in radio and RADAR while a member of the British Royal Air Force (coined in the 1940s for Radio Detection And Ranging).

He was also a keen ham radio operator. We remember him whistling his ham radio call sign in Morse code at the dinner table! As soon as he tragically passed away in 2020, we had it etched on his headstone. So anything about Morse code has already grabbed our attention. 

Let’s talk a little more about this telecommunication technique that dates back to the mid-1800s.

The Revolution In Long-Distance Communication Sparked By Morse Code 

One of the major changes in manufacturing and production can be attributed to Morse code. Morse code, which was created in the 1840s for use with Samuel F.B. Morse's electric telegraph, sped up communication by enabling users to send messages through wired telegraph lines and later radio waves around the globe. 

Morse code gave rise to barcodes and UPCs which later gave rise to QR codes, giving us the ability to track the entire lifespan of a product or component from raw materials to the end-of-life recycling process.

Today, we send and monitor materials, goods, and packages all over the world using barcodes. And the two are directly related.

The Morse Code Foundation For Early Barcodes

You may be familiar with Norman Joseph Woodland's tale. A Philadelphia supermarket manager got in touch with the dean at Drexel Institute of Technology in 1948 to ask for advice on how to speed up customer flow through the store and checkout lanes and improve the effectiveness of stock-taking. 

Graduate student Woodland took on the challenge. While sitting on a beach in Florida, he utilized Morse code (which he learned during his Boy Scout days). He "stretched the dots and dashes downward and built narrow lines and wide lines out of them" to solve the grocery store puzzle, which resulted in the barcode. 

Our inspiration originally originated from the Morse code "dash-dot-dash" design, Woodland reportedly told IBM in 1991. In essence, it is what barcoding is. a non-verbal sign; a label-reading Morse code. Morse code was constrained by the need for precise orientation. So Woodland drew his lines into a circle that resembled a target.

Bernard Silver, a fellow Drexel alumnus, and Woodland created a functioning prototype of their idea in October 1949. They referred to it as "item classification using the technique of pattern recognition. 

Three years later, they received U.S. "Classifying Apparatus and Method" which is covered under Patent No. 2,612,994. It was made up of alternating thick and thin concentric circles that could be scanned from any angle, much like a target or bullseye. 

Technology took some time to catch up to Woodland's prototype since optical scanners were cumbersome and expensive.

The development of the technology to create a device that can read code using lasers and microchips involved contributions from Philco, RCA, and IBM. Early barcode readers were made possible by the innovative inventions of microchips in 1958 and lasers in 1960. 

Evolution Of Bullseye Barcodes To UPC Code

Early in the 1970s, IBM's George Lauer transformed the bullseye barcode into the universal product code, or UPC, a rectangular design with thick and thin parallel lines. In a test demonstration put up by IBM, they tossed a baseball with a coded label over a laser to read the code, and it worked. 

The first item to be scanned for purchase was a 10-pack of gum at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, in June 1974. Ten years later, barcodes became ubiquitous in grocery and drug stores and by 1991, clothing stores, hardware stores, and even sporting arenas began adopting barcodes.

Inventory Management Systems, Real-Time Data, And ERP

Real-time inventory management systems that capture point of sale and demand data were first developed in the 1990s and were controlled by an ERP backend system. We remember working with a QAD customer automating its warehouse services. Wrote the software to produce the barcode labels to reduce labor costs via automation. 

The objective was to find the most automatic way to deliver the product to the right shop location of the large retailer. We merged the labels with ASNs, which were transmitted to a shipper and utilized to categorize parcels for nationwide distribution. 

The speed at which the products were processed for scanning was amazing. A barcode could be scanned from any orientation by a scanner in the blink of an eye. Ironically, learned that scanners at the time seemed to have a problem with blue packaging – the manufacturer needed to change some of their package colors to remedy this!

Barcode Data Limitations Lead To Development Of QR Codes

Barcodes in their earliest iterations were limited to 12 digits. The need for more data on labels led to the origins of 2-D Quick Read or QR codes, which can hold 7,000 digits or 4,000 letters/characters. Masahiro Hara, a Denso Wave developer, attempted to orient the patterns into data to increase the amount of data a code could contain in 1994. He was motivated by the black and white squares and spaces of the game of Go. 

Manufacturers are no longer constrained by how much information they can include in a code thanks to QR codes. Instead of being limited to a UPC that could only identify a product model, you could now identify each serialized product. 

A different QR code can therefore be used for every version of a product. For instance, every distinct QR code for a medical gadget has an identity that contains its particular history. Traceability improves, efficiency improves. Additionally, website URL links can be included in product QR codes, providing even more information. 

Emerging Technologies And ESG Performance And Tracking

Manufacturers are including more product information into codes, such as Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) elements, which assess a company's and its products' sustainability, to satisfy customer demand for knowledge. 

The coding shows where a product came from, whether it was ethically sourced and made, the environmental effects of the production, what its origins are, and so on. Embedding codes into materials and components help with recycling at the end-of-life phase. 

This enables us to keep track of the identification of materials throughout their entire existence, from raw materials to manufacturing, consumers, and recycling. 

Automating And Digitizing Material And Production Data

Meeting customer expectations while managing material handling and warehouse operations can be challenging. For manufacturers to succeed, digital automation methods and real-time visibility into material flows are essential. Automating data collection, warehousing, and shop floor instructions can lead to inventory reductions and more effective material flow.

These challenges prompted us to develop a key solution for the QAD Adaptive Applications portfolio. QAD Automation Solutions gives manufacturers the tools, including barcodes, to automate and digitize the capture of material and production data and print labels according to the manufacturer, supplier, or customer formats. 

This uniform method of labeled communication raises the efficiency of material handling while adhering to serialization and worldwide barcode standards. Some of the benefits of an automated data management system include reduced labor, less downtime, and greater inventory accuracy. A real-time view of where goods are placed is encouraged by QAD Automation Solutions, which was not possible in the manual world. 

If only Samuel Morse had understood that the full traceability potential of materials as they pass through the production process from raw materials to recycling and the revolutionary technologies that would follow would be made possible by his straightforward Morse code.

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