The right place?

Hello Databasejournal users, My name is Rob and I am looking for some directional advice concerning databases and software. This seems like a good place to start. I'm not really sure how to search for such specific answers with my questions so forgive me if the answers appear elsewhere. Here is the situation:

The company I work for does some very specific printing, and each item we print is imprinted with a specific set of 2 barcodes that have some static numbers and some variable ones.

These barcodes allow us to insure that our product is in the correct order before moving to the next process. Here is an example with each line representing a different set of 2 barcodes

1001 00000
1101 10001
1102 10002
1103 10003
1102 10004
1103 10005
1102 10006
1103 10007
1011 00000

The barcodes are read in unison by a laser scanner and are crosschecked against a database file to ensure that the data is in the correct order.

The problem is the person that does our programming is disconnected from the company and has generated incredible amounts of errors lately. I am a computer savvy guy and I'm looking for a way to edge myself in the company. I was wondering if someone could let me know what route I should take if I wanted to learn how to write a rudimentary software application that I could build on and eventually try and use at work. What type of database software, language and the like? Thanks in advance!

I mailed an order in Thursday before the "reserve" system was in place. I "reserved" it this morning and mailed the reservation with a copy of my original order with a note explaining my situation this afternoon. Im sure theyll figure it out.