Inventory management is absolutely essential for any organization since without it would be impossible to give any reliable sales commitments. The inventory gives an understanding of how much what is being produced is getting converted into sales and also take critical decisions,
Asset tracking solutions can aid the entire process of inventory management by making it easier to track the inventory assets. The process of tracking assets like equipment or other devices within an organizational premise – from one location to the other typically moved as part of the production is key to asset inventory management.
For any organization of today, it is critical to understand how its inventory stands to achieve speed and efficiency in its operations – not to mention the fact that this needs to be done within a specified and affordable cost.
In simple terms, inventory management is about how the organization manages and utilizes its raw materials so as to ensure efficient production of its products and finished goods. It ensures that there is a proper flow of the products from the manufacturing to the warehouse and thereon to the various points of sale downstream the supply chain.
Good management of inventory will help reduce costs ensuring the bottom line is in control. It also helps you to provide better customer services through faster deliveries and lower transportation charges, thus, going beyond customer expectations.
How Asset Tracking helps in managing the Inventory?
An asset tracking system typically would have some asset tags which can serve both as a unique identifier as well as a position tracker making the production more efficient and results of tracking more reliable. There would be some kind of scanner for tracking this tag.
The technology involved in tracking might vary from a simple barcode-based to the latest wireless ones using BLE like the Asset Tracking Software provided by Quicsolv. In barcodes, each label would need to be scanned manually. In the case of a BLE tag, there would be relays and gateways which would scan for the BLE asset tags in real-time.
If the inventory items are tagged, these would be scanned every time it moves from a plant to a warehouse or to another plant location. This gives a real-time track of the location providing a clear picture of not just where the asset’s current and latest location but also about the path followed. One could even tell how the asset got in there, how much it spent in which location on its way to the current location too.
Asset Tracking Benefits
Asset tracking solutions like the one mentioned above can benefit your inventory management in multiple ways:
- By keeping asset tags attached to the palettes one can know which inventory is stored where within the warehouse. Warehouse pallet tracking systems can help such as this can make inventory tracking easier.
- Not just location, even if these palettes are moved around, it would be possible to easily locate them using an asset tracking system.
- It is possible to know in real-time the location of the inventory and it would save a lot of time in trying to take a real-time stock of the inventory items. It will help in FIFO-based inventory utilization.
- It would help centralize the inventory as the asset tracking system is stored in the cloud. This will give visibility to the various sales channels about the inventory available and where.
- If there is a situation of stock-out, then this would lead to delays and this will harm the reputation. The asset tracking can help by giving a real-time count of the items thus alerting the production managers.
Additional benefits from Asset Tracking
The benefits of Asset tracking are not limited to finding the location of the asset in a timely manner. Such systems also provide additional information and benefits.
Through the use of an asset tracking system, monitoring of assets data is collected and the usage evidence is provided to the organization that can be useful in making process-related decisions to better optimize. Being able to study the movement of the assets one would be able to understand the usage dynamics and ensure that these are accessible when needed and where they are needed.
Even scheduling of the regular maintenance of assets is aided by using an asset tracking solution. Such solutions also provide additional information like when the last maintenance was performed. It can help provide information on how much the asset has been utilized and if it is truly due for maintenance in terms of its usage.
Inventory management although being an important function yet gets neglected especially so due to the need for following processes diligently so as to ensure accuracy. An asset tracking system similar to the one mentioned above could be useful in making this part of the natural flow of the work at hand.
If you think this is interesting and would like to know more about how it can be implemented in your business scenario, please feel free to contact us.
