Essentials of asset management
Across industry, within food or pharmaceutical production, high tech manufacturing, logistics service provision and healthcare, asset tracking is a central goal of good supply chain management. Whether the assets being tracked are people, raw materials, work in progress or finished goods, essential scientific equipment or re-useable plastic containers employed during transportation and shipping, asset management is important. It enables any business or public service provider to achieve strategic and operational goals through centralised asset planning and the greater visibility, utilisation and control this brings. In this sense, the benefits of asset tracking are synergistic, whereby the positive gains derived from achieving the whole are greater than its substituent parts.
Right time, right place means lower costs
Improved visibility – ensuring assets are always in the right place at the right time - is an overarching result of asset tracking, which in turn, delivers significant cost reduction benefits including improved productivity, lower costs and fewer errors. For instance, using auto ID technology, any assets can effectively be traced and, armed with the right information, process efficiency or quality can be improved, inventory levels or re-purchase rates controlled and fleet sizes reduced. In turn, the return on assets employed can be significantly higher than originally forecast. This is achieved through a combination of factors - lower losses through theft, downtime or wastage and improved decision-making. Additionally, an increasingly important consideration when undertaking asset management is the prevention of counterfeiting.