QUESTIONS pertaining to obtaining and using numbers
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Section 2 Question #1 - Is the Uniform Code Council "the" place to get a code issued? Is it the only place? Is it controlled by the government? 10/20/98
Answer- Yes, it is "the" place and the only place in the United States. They are not affiliated with any government agency and use of the U.P.C. symbol is entirely voluntary. The EAN and JAN symbol numbers (European and Japanese symbols) are administrated by agencies similar to the UCC overseas. They of course have "Country Flags" other than "0". In Canada, the Electronic Commerce Council of Canada (ECCC) issues numbers with their "Country Flag".
See more information for the small user.
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Section 2 Question #2 - I have received the following question several times in various forms: "Recently we received a 6-digits UPC code for our new product. We will sell 5 different bottles (same product with some minor variations such as volume and percentage of alcohol) in the United States. The Information sheet says that we have to assign 5 digits by ourselves. We want to print our UPC code sheets but our printer doesn't know how to place these numbers. If our number is Our number is 123456. How should we locate these digits? The information sheet indicates two tiny digits on both sides of the code and 10 large digits inside. So: - Where should our 6 digits go (should we start with the first digit as a tiny number on the side)? - What is the rule (if any) to assign the other 5 digits (we understand that they should be different for each variation of a product. Does these digits mean something or they could be any numbers?) " 12/28/98
Answer- The UCC (assuming it is a "flag 0" USA number) assigned the first 6 digits. The next 5 digits are assigned by you and usually are similar to your SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) number. The only thing to be careful of, is that there are no duplicates in your system and you keep a record of the numbers you assign. The 12th digit is a calculated, weighted, modulo 10 check digit. You do indeed need a different item number for each variation of the product. The number is not "structured" i.e. it is only a reference number and has no meaning other than that.
The symbol on the home page of my web site is from a manufacture who was assigned the six digits: 036000. The next five digits are the item number they assigned (i.e. 27710) the last digit , (4) is the check digit.
For more information please check question #3 in this section.
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Section 2 Question #3 - Where do I obtain a U.P.C. number and how do I use and assign the item number.
This is a continuation and update of question #2 above, which should be read first. 3/31/00
Answer- Question #2 answers the basic question, however, November 15, 1999 the UCC issued a press release announcing a new Variable Length UCC-12 (U.P.C.) Company Prefixes. This only affects system numbers 1, 8, and 9. There is no change in the symbol itself. It is simply a bookkeeping change similar to assigning a block of manufacture's numbers to some companies and in other cases assigning only a sub group of one number to other manufactures. This allows better use of the remaining system capacity since those companies with only a few products share the same six digit manufacture number while those few manufactures with greater than 100,000 items will be allowed more than one number. For more information visit their site at: Uniform Code Council, Inc. which is the URL: http://www.uc-council.org/
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Section 2 Question #4 - The following question, with minor variations has been asked several times and is certainly worthy of being posted here. "I have recently received a question from a customer of mine in a foreign country. This person would like to now if they can export their product to the U.S. from their country (where the product obtained the EAN). In other words, will the U.S.'s U.P.C. scanners be able to read the EAN codes? " 4/1/99
Answer- The original scheme for the EAN (UPC-13) was such that one could read EAN symbols with equipment originally designed to read only US U.P.C. symbols with relativity minor changes to the scanner logic. It appears many scanners , even after 26 years, do not have these modifications. I have no idea why this minor upgrade hasn't been made, especially in the newer equipment. The requirement for any U.P.C. is negotiated between the supplier and his marketing outlet.
In order to shed some light on the subject, I asked the UCC council and received the following answer in December 1998.
December 1998
Since the majority of scanners in the U.S. are not scanning EAN, your client will probably need to apply for a UCC Company number for use in development of a U.P.C. symbol on their product.
UCC and EAN International have formed an agreement whereby companies located in a country that is supported by an EAN Numbering Organization must go to their EAN Numbering Organization for assistance in obtaining the Company number. The EAN Numbering Organization, in turn, will contact UCC who will assign the Company number and provide it to the Numbering Organization for distribution to the new member.
Therefore, dependent upon the location of the applying company, they may be required to obtain their Company number from their supporting EAN Numbering Organization, or they would apply directly to the UCC.
UCC application forms can be obtained by accessing UCC's web site at www.uc-council.org or by contacting our customer service department at 937-435-3870.
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Section 2 Question 5 - Is there any chance of UPC numbers running out due to the proliferation of companies and their products? 12/10/00
Answer- The answer is YES and NO.
Number assignment considerations of the U.P.C. Version A and EAN-13, both of which have 59 bars and spaces.
Twenty-seven years ago when the U.P.C. was conceived, its anticipated use was for one industry only, the grocery industry. The design was such that the symbol would accommodate 100,000 manufactures each with a maximum of 100,000 numbers they could assign to their products. Thus it was considered for years, a ten digit code. Before the symbol requirements were finalized, the need for random weight items and a method to incorporate "drug" and "health and beauty aids" ten digit codes already assigned was recognized. A "System number" was added as was a check digit making the symbol which is generally referred to as the ten digit Version A, actually 12 digits long. Upon announcement, the use of system numbers 0,1,3,4,and 5 was defined, the remaining 500,000 manufacture numbers were "kept in the bank".
A short time after announcement, the European community saw the advantage of the symbol and requested numbers for their use. I devised a method to add another digit within the same symbol format of 59 bars and spaces. Thus EAN-13 was born. The 10 digits of the 13th character were "given" to other countries for their use. World wide, there was the potential for some one million manufacturer numbers, certainly more than enough for the life of the technology.
That is not the end of the story. The unprecedented success of the U.P.C. resulted in an unanticipated expanse into other industries and today one finds the symbol on every type of goods imaginable. Since this was not anticipated, the resource of numbers was squandered to some extent by inefficient use of the available 10 to the 13th numbers (10,000,000,000,000, that is 10,000 giga-numbers). The fact that numbers were not retired, few manufacturers needed 100,000 item numbers, some countries had a system number but few manufactures, were some of the inefficiencies.
In the past two years the UCC has taken steps to reduce the inefficient use. See Section 2, questions 3 & 4 for details. Question #3 deals with "Variable Length UCC-12 (U.P.C.) Company Prefixes" which essentially increases the number of manufacturer numbers by reducing the number of items each manufacturer can have.
The answer to your question is that eventually the capacity of Version A will be exceeded but then there is Version D. Realistically, before the numbers run out, the technology will be replaced with some new technology, perhaps transmitting microchips on each product. However, due to the tremendous amount of hardware, software, and resources invested in today's U.P.C., that time is decades away.
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If anyone sends me a question pertaining to the U.P.C. symbol, history, or the like, which can be answered concisely via e-mail, I will send the answer to their mail box and post both question and answer of some of them here.
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Revised: March 2002 George J. LaurerReturn to HOME page.