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Asset tracking

By January 9, 2019 February 24th, 2019 No Comments
Asset tracking-Asset tracking software-Asset tracking apps-Industries Need Asset Tracking-Asset tracking techniques

What is Asset Tracking?

With the production of GPS, scientists can invent some even more amazing instruments and systems, like asset tracking. The main purpose of this technology is to improve the security of factories, locating products, improving police abilities, and governments.

Asset tracking helps managers track their products when they go out of the factory until they reach their customers. For a better performance, this technology uses GPS to prevent any mistakes. Cellular and satellite networks are bases for controlling the products. As mentioned, GPS is the easiest tool to manage this process, a software also facilitates this monitoring. Barcodes and RFID tags need a special scanner which helps managers control assets easily.

Some GPS tracking devices are self-powered, meaning their battery lasts up to more than 4 years, but it its lifespan depends on the rate of reporting.

Asset tracking uses around 48 IOT systems to improve and manage products.

As we said, asset tracking works by labels and tags. This technology monitors products by scanning labels attached to assets or using some tags like GPS, BLE or RFID which can recognize goods’ locations.

Which Industries Need Asset Tracking?

Many factories need asset tracking to control and manage their products. These industries are like farming, mining, gas, oil and many others. For example, Some manufacturers who use the AEMP which is a data standard, are Caterpillar, John Deere, and Komatsu.

Performance of Asset Tracking Systems

Not only tags and barcodes help managers track their assets, but also NFC, Bluetooth and WIFI can help too.

Barcodes and QR codes for asset tracking: Barcodes can be scanned by a manual scanner. Moreover, the manager can scan QR codes with smartphones.

RFID for assets tracking: RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a kind of smart tag which can locate the products but with a limited transmission rate. It is just available for a few meters, but a smart model can transmit more than 2000 meters. The usage of this kind of asset tracker is to monitor and generate various reports for managers.

NFC for asset tracking: Using NFC is the latest version of asset tracking. Through this technology, managers can easily track the assets by tapping on them and visiting their reports.

Wi-Fi, IR, and Bluetooth for asset tracking: There are many ways to track manufactured goods by managers; Wi-Fi, IR, and Bluetooth are the best ways to control indoor assets. In this case, Wi-Fi combined with another technology like IR.

Usage of Assets Tracking

For tracking assets, many systems and technologies come around to help. Now the main question is, what is the usage of asset tracking systems? Here are a few examples:

  • Health Care: Much science and many technologies come around to help patients. One of these technologies is asset tracking. Asset trackers are able to receive the patient’s information much quicker. Not only asset tracking save times, but also sends the information more accurately.

  • Factories: Although asset tracking is popular between hospitals and governments, this technology is recommended to managers who want to monitor and locate their products. They can find out where their goods are.

  • Law Enforcement: Many police officers are using asset tracking to locate electronic instruments like cell phones or vehicles.

  • Museums and art galleries: Many museums use asset tracking systems to monitor sculptures, pictures, and other valuable pieces.

  • Stadiums: Asset tracking systems are used in several stadiums to monitor and store athlete’s performers.

As you can see, asset tracking systems which work with NFC, Wi-Fi, barcodes, Bluetooth, and many other technologies are the best ways to manage products, patients and etc. Asset tracking systems also analyze much quicker and more accurately, save stores and, reduce costs.

 What are the Benefits of Asset Tracking for Companies?

If you are a busuiness or indusrty owner and have plans to invest in asset tracking, you will save your money as well as your time. Companies and industries who use asset tracking techniques, will save administrative expenses, improve their business, increase their customer service satisfaction and easily grow their business. There are several benefits and advantages in using asset tracking for businesses which will be mentioned in the following:

  • Lowering adminstrative staff and costs: By using asset tracking, there will be no need to track assets manually and your company will save time, money and manpower.Besides, you can assign new duties and tasks to the administrative staff and increase your personnel productivity. Moreover, this method of tracking reduces asset loss and increase the efficiency of asset use.

  • Expanding your business: With the help of asset tracking techniques, you can grow your business easily, quickly and efficiently and have the chance to compete with larger companies and businesses.

  • Improving customer satisfaction: By using asset tracking, companies will be able to improve their customer service and customer satistafction. Eventually, managing assets not only help companies and businesses retain their current customers, but also the satisfied clients can advertise your business by word-of-mouth.

  • Lowering financial losses: By using asset tracking, the companies will be able to identify asset loss properly and in a regular basis ,and they will know where to allocate assets and prevent asset misuse.

  • Organizing your company’s physical space: By using asset tracking techniques, companies will boost and increase space in their offices, warehouses and storages, using it more efficiently; accordingly, they can identify frequently accessed products and create a proper structure for warehousing. In this way, the companies will identify the trending items and estimate their future needs.

 Asset Tracking Software

Asset tracking softwares help companies and industries track assets and IT equipment, devices or softwares in a company. Asset tracking software scans all assets, making them deliver a quantitative report and enables companies to monitor their assets physically. By the help of an asset tracking software, companies and organizations can schedule maintenance or preventive maintenance.

There are several reasons why companies should use an asset tracking software:

  • Asset tracking software enables companies to track missing assets’ exact locations through GPS without wasting time and manpower; consequently, it reduces costs and customer complaints.
  • Asset tracking software helps companies increase their customer satisfaction by providing information about the location of their assets in real-time.
  • By using a tracking software, companies can have access to the location of the items and track the time their assets arrive; thus, it helps companies improve asset management in real-time.
  • Using asset tracking software reduces manual taskszUsing asset tracking software in companies will lower maintenance and repair costs by monitoring and anticipating devaluation of items and companies can replace or repair their assets on time.

Asset tracking apps

As mentioned earlier in this article, companies and industries use asset tracking techniques in order to track and make a record of their assets and inventory to know about their location and status as well as scheduling their maintenance. Asset tracking apps are the software by which enterprises can track and manage their assets efficiently by scanning their barcodes and record the required data; moreover, asset tracking apps can help companies in auditing processes to create a record of their inventory. There are several useful apps that can use your mobile phone camera to take pictures of assets or scan the barcodes of the items and then record and export the data. Here, we mention some asset tracking apps with useful features such as A-Trak Asset Tracking, Assets, BarCloud, Rapid Inventory, Mobile Inventory Navigator, Asset Manager and Barcode Scan, Track5000s, TrackAbout, AccountAbility Mobile Scanner, and RedBeam. It is worth mentioning that most of these aforementioned mobile apps are free and users can download them on Google Play and iTunes.

Conclusion

To conclude, if you are a business owner and deal with assets or physical items, it is crucial for your company to manage and make a record of your inventory as well as tracking your assets. You can track your assets by scanning their barcode labels or using GPS and RFID tags to know about the items’ location. Asset tracking techniques help companies to save time and energy through using apps and software and make a precise record of their assets. Besides, it helps them schedule the time of fixing their assets and improve the maintenance process. Additionally, the companies and industries will lower their asset loss and administrative costs, and they can improve customer satisfaction; consequently, asset tracking techniques are helpful in growing your business and boosting customer service experience. Keep in mind that happy customers have the potential to advertise your brand and company through word-of-mouth.</p>