An Automated Barcode System for Tracking and Control of Engineering Deliverables

The use of barcode technology has proven its effectiveness in a number of industries such as retail and manufacturing. This is due to its ability to assist in organizing, storing, retrieving and making use of huge amount of data in an efficient manner. Although, this technology has been explored by many researchers, it has not been yet fully embraced by the construction industry. This paper highlights the potential use of barcode technology in the construction industry. It focuses mainly on presenting an automated system for tracking and control of engineering deliverables such as drawings, reports and specifications. The system utilizes barcode technology and database management systems (DBMS) for performing its task. The paper briefly describes the various types of barcode labels, scanners and decoders and focuses primarily on presenting a barcode system that is designed to facilitate coding of information pertaining to a wide variety of documents produced in the construction environment. It utilizes 92 alphanumeric characters that is coded in accordance to Code 39 system and stores information related to up to 10,000 documents. The paper also presents a schematic diagram for a database system designed to retrieve a wide variety of information in a multi-project environment. A plan for validating the developed system is also presented.