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| Norman Joseph Woodland |
On the 15th of December 2012 I came across a small
news item, somewhere on the 17th page of the Delhi edition of
Hindustan Times, it reported the demise of a man who made path breaking
contribution by inventing the barcode which has since evolved over the years to
change the way products are labeled and packed for modern day retail. His
invention has facilitated not only quicker point of sales invoicing but also
inventory management, track and trace operations and many other industrial
processes. Norman Joseph Woodland, the co-inventor of barcode, passed away in
Edgewater, New Jersey, USA on the 9th of December 2012 at the age of
91 years.
Born on 6th September 1921 to Jewish parents,
Woodland earned his B.Sc in Mechanical engineering from Drexel University,
where he later joined as a lecturer in 1948-49. One day his colleague Bernard
Silver heard a super market executive asking their dean to develop a system to
automatically capture product information at cash counters to facilitate
quicker sale process. While the dean refused yet Silver found the idea extremely
appealing and also convinced Woodland to join him in creating a viable product.
Woodland quit his job and moved to Florida to spend time on the project. One
day sitting in a chair on the beach he pondered over the project at hand. To
represent information visually, he realized, he would need a code. The only
code he knew was the one he had learned in the Boy Scouts. What would happen,
Woodland wondered one day, if Morse code, with its elegant simplicity and
limitless combinatorial potential, were adapted graphically? He began trailing
his fingers idly through the sand. “What
I’m going to tell you sounds like a fairy tale,” Woodland told Smithsonian magazine
in 1999. “I poked my four fingers into the sand and for whatever reason — I
didn’t know — I pulled my hand toward me and drew four lines. I said: ‘Golly!
Now I have four lines, and they could be wide lines and narrow lines instead of
dots and dashes.’ ” He along with Bernard Silver patented the barcode in the
shape of conclavic rings of varying widths. Unfortunately, since they could not
develop a cost effective or viable scanning device and being pessimistic of the
way forward, they sold their invention for 15000 dollars, which was all the
money they made from this patent. Woodland thereafter joined IBM in 1951 and
remained there till his retirement in late eighties. In between in 1960 his
patent had expired. Almost 20 years after he joined IBM his colleague at IBM
George Laurer with support from Woodland created the present day barcode. It is
the zebra like band of vertical lines of varying thickness. These could be
scanned with the help of microprocessors and laser scanners that had been
developed by that time and made the product viable and cost effective. On the
26th of June 1974, a supermarket cashier in Troy, Ohio, USA became
the first person to scan a barcode on a 67 cent pack of Wrigley’s Chewing Gum.
The technology has since evolved and changed the way how products are retailed
and supply chain is managed. Now an estimated 5 billion barcodes are scanned in
millions of retail outlets around the world. A man whose pioneering effort has
impacted the label and packaging industry positively and to gigantic
proportions adding to its growth has passed away. We salute the noble soul… Norman
Joseph Woodland “may your soul rest in peace (RIP)”
Successful exhibitions are normally linked to the cities and
the venues where they have been traditionally held and found success. Drupa,
the biggest printing industry show has always been held successfully at Messe Dusseldorf,
Labelexpo Europe continues to attract the world of labels every two years to
the expo centre in Brussels and all editions of Auto expo are destined at
Frankfurt. India has lacked exhibition venues and New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan is
the only destination which has most of the successful and large shows.
Unfortunately the state owned venue with it monopolistic attitude has rubbed
many a show organizers on the wrong side. Due to this reason many organizers
who had successful shows at this venue seem to be moving to the new and more
international Greater NOIDA Expo center even though it has locational
disadvantage. In recent times two of the major print and packaging related
shows that were highly successful at Pragati Maidan have moved away. PackPlus
was recently held at Greater NOIDA Expo Centre and the huge IPAMA organised
PrintPack India 2013 will also be held at the same venue from 23rd
to28th February 2013. The venue has a
disadvantage as it is far from New Delhi and has no airport, train or metro
station in its vicinity. Even no organized or government sponsored/owned
regular bus service is available. Persons from Delhi or those arriving from other
cities have to hire all day taxis to reach the venue. Defying all disadvantages
the organizers of these events have shifted the shows to this venue. In clear
contrast the organizers of Labelexpo India, the UK based Tarsus Group, who had
an extremely successful show in the end of October 2012 at Pragati Maidan despite
indicating a change of venue for future shows decided to announce the next show
two years hence again at Pragati Maidan.
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Anil Arora
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Anil Arora of PackPlus was beaming after the show ended. He
was pleased that he successfully blasted the myth that visitors will not come
to Greater NOIDA. He had advertised and arranged transportation from metro
stations in NOIDA to bring visitors comfortably to the venue and also for
return. With a footfall of 5213 visitors who made the effort to come, he is
happy that they were an extremely focused lot who came and his show has
delivered the results expected by over 200 exhibitors showcasing at this event.
The bigger and established printers and those from the established packaging
companies were not very evident at the show however many from the end user
segment marked their presence adding value to the show. It is a show with lot
of promise and the next editions are bound to grow bigger. The exhibitors were
a mixed lot catering to many segments in the print, packaging and product
packing industry. The label industry was also present. Those from the label industry,
who exhibited included Reynders, Anygraphics, Pacedge Labels, Saiprographics,
Insight communications, Weldon Celloplast, etc.
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| Dr. Ramani Narayan |
On the sidelines of PackPlus, a very successful International
Packaging Conclave was organized on the second day of PackPlus at Radisson Blu,
Greater NOIDA. It received a good response with 110 attendees arriving from all
parts of the country. The conclave started with the key note address by Prof.
Ramani Narayan, distinguished Professor, Michigan State University. I and all
other delegates were very impressed by the presentation of Dr. Narayan, the
clarity of his expression left the listeners spellbound. His pleasant nature
was experienced by many who interacted with him during the networking sessions.
The Conclave proceeded towards the first
panel discussion on ‘Packaging Solutions: Benefits of Integration &
Collaboration across the Value Chain.’ The second panel discussion delved deep
in automation highlighting ‘Future Demands on Automation for Packaging- to
which Open Technology is the Answer’. The third and the final panel discussion
focused on ‘Sustainability- the Future Imperative: Approached & Case
Studies’. Concluding with the roundup by Mahendra N Patel, Chairman, Mamata
Machinery, the Conclave summed up to big success. It was very interesting to
see the delegates were glued to their seats even till 8.45 PM when the last
presentation ended. The conclave was attended by known names in the Packaging
industry and senior level executives from Coca Cola, Nestle, Kraft Foods,
Castrol, GSK, etc. The evening ended with a networking dinner leaving fond
memories of comradeship.
Written by Harveer Sahni, Managing
Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi-110008 December, 2012
