Every physical piece you send to FBF can be tracked as a unit with its own permanent barcode. This guide covers what that identity means; the printing mechanics live in the Shipping, Labels & Barcodes guides.
What a unit (FWU) is
A unit is one physical piece — one coffee bag, one blender. Each gets a globally-unique barcode in the format FWU-YYYY-############-XX, for example FWU-2026-000000000123-C7. The platform allocates these codes; they are never reused and never reassigned.
Permanent identity — even through returns
Since the July update, a unit’s FWU identity is permanent across its whole life: sold, delivered, returned, re-inspected, restocked — it stays the same unit with the same barcode. That’s what makes return inspection honest: the warehouse verifies it’s genuinely your original unit coming back, and duplicate or mismatched barcodes are caught at scan time.
Never move a printed FWU label from one piece to another, and never attach the same label twice. The barcode is the unit’s identity — swapping labels creates identity conflicts the warehouse will reject.
Looking up a unit
Use Unit Lookup («بحث عن وحدة بالباركود») in the Barcode Center and enter an FWU barcode. You’ll see the unit’s product/SKU, status, physical condition, custody, warehouse, location, lot, storage age, linked shipment/order/return, plus a full lifecycle log — invaluable when investigating one specific piece.
Unit Lookup depends on the unit-barcode service, which is awaiting platform activation today — the Barcode Center shows a pending banner until then.
Where the printing details live
Who prints unit labels, what UNPRINTED means, attestations, reprints and scan verification are covered in the dedicated label guides: