U.P.C. Pioneer Alan Haberman Passes Away

GS1 US, the not-for-profit standards group formerly known as the Uniform Code Council, comments on the June 12, 2011, death of Alan L. Haberman, who helped select the design for the Universal Product Code (U.P.C.) barcode and served on the organization’s Board of Governors for many years.

 

“Alan Haberman literally put a stamp on global commerce as one of a handful of grocery executives involved in creating the U.P.C.,” says Bob Carpenter, president and chief executive officer of GS1 US. “He was a huge contributor to the selection of this symbol, which is going strong after almost four decades and is used by nearly 2 million companies around the world.

 

“Alan was also a force in the creation of the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1990s, leading to the development of the Electronic Product Code and commercial uses of radio frequency identification (RFID), which is currently undergoing a sharp increase in use in stores, warehouses, factories and elsewhere.

 

“He was a true visionary, and organizations across some two dozen industries are benefiting today from his contributions,” Carpenter says.