With the economic situation being what it is, businesses today have to minimize equipment downtime and enhance staff productivity to remain competitive. Equipment tracking software facilitates organizations by helping them maximize staff and equipment output. It does this by reducing labor costs, limiting the need to produce or buy replacements, and lowering administrative burdens. Asset tracking makes sure that your equipment or products reach the right location, in good condition, and at the right time.
One of the primary technologies that asset tracking uses is barcodes. Barcode technology allows the tracking of individual consignments along with automatically tracking product or equipment movement from the point of dispatch, whether it is the warehouses or packing line or any other delivery point. This lets organizations and their staff know where their equipment is, when goods are shipped, and when they can be expected to be available again. What makes barcode technology so valuable is its efficiency and accuracy. It is highly reliable and barely costs anything to implement, especially if you use asset tracking software that comes bundled with that capability.
Combination of equipment tracking software and barcode tech
Combining an asset tracking system with barcode technology lets organizations figure out the whereabouts of portable and fixed assets like machinery, tools, vehicles and other equipment. All the information on assets is recorded through a barcode reader which is pre-programmed with an interrogation system that lets the user collect data accurately, efficiently and in an organized way.
The partnership of barcodes with asset tracking and inventory is simple and effective, and minimizes the use of financial resources and labor time. Your organization pays a heavy price for lost and unused equipment. Equipment tracking software consisting of barcode technology prevents this waste by keeping track of the equipment your business depends on. Any user present in your company will be able to track equipment in order to find out who last checked out the asset, whether it is being repaired, or where you can find it two days from now!
Barcode technology is incredibly cheap to use and implement; even small and mid-sized businesses are able to use asset labels with only a minor investment. Below, we’ll outline some of the benefits barcodes add to equipment tracking software, letting your business make a smooth sail towards higher efficiency!
Work more efficiently
Have you ever noticed your staff roaming around the warehouse searching fruitlessly for equipment or tools? Chances are that someone moved them around or checked them out but failed to enter the movement in the system.
Using a handheld barcode scanner, you can scan and immediately update assets within an equipment tracking system. With durable barcode tags assigned to equipment, important information (such as service dates, location, and purchase details) is recorded effortlessly, with your staff being able to log in hundreds of assets into the system within minutes. You can even transmit routing and picking instructions to handheld devices in order to prevent visits to the same area of your warehouse repeatedly.
Labeling assets enables you to pull up items quickly and work more efficiently.
Increase your productivity
Not too long ago, you needed to punch asset data into the computer manually, and with a significant time investment. Most of the time, these records were a wreck. Static spreadsheets recording past data meant that your information was already out of date when it was logged into the computer. In addition, when you required multiple people to enter data, it was hard to find a consistent logging system that worked for everyone.
Equipment tracking software reduces the time taken to collect important data considerably. Owing to modern technology, barcode scanners today can scan dozens of barcodes in only a minute, with some having the power to scan barcodes continuously by simply holding down the scanning button. This increases productivity immensely.
Since information is scanned really fast, it means your workers are going to have more free time to focus on other things. You can now get your employees involved in other important aspects of your business, and make them feel like they’re doing more than just senselessly logging data for the future.
Read more: 4 Ways Your New Business Can Use Asset Tracking Software
Cuts down on unnecessary costs
With a barcoding system, your database can be updated in real time rather than hiring someone to manually enter information on their own time and with the specific limitations that manual entries make you vulnerable to. This means you have a robust database to facilitate you in running your business more efficiently.
For instance, you can immediately know which of your equipment you’re short on. You can even know the reasons for this. Perhaps purchase orders weren’t filled on time, or perhaps the item is still under maintenance. Barcode systems integrated within an asset tracking software can allow you to have accurate historic data at your fingertips. You don’t have to guess which equipment is going to be the most popular or the most important for your business, but instead can pull up these figures using a handy custom report!
This gives you an eagle’s eye view of key metrics like the inventory turnover rate or maintenance efficiency, which will eventually make requisitions and retirement a lot more efficient. More efficient ordering systems mean less equipment and tool acquisitions, which translates into reduced costs. You can now live lean and be a lot more agile when it comes to your business!
Improve your organizational database
All asset labels are not created equal! Think of a traditional barcode label, such as the one you’d find on a pack of milk. These barcodes have the ability to hold up to 20 characters of information which is only enough space to use as a product identifier, with basic asset information like the name and perhaps the model number.
Greater informational accuracy allows you to make better business decisions.
Equipment tracking labels use two dimensional (2D) barcodes that appear to be more like QR codes. 2D barcodes have an amazing capacity of holding up to 4000 characters of text. This extra space allows you to store information which will let you improve your company’s database. For instance, in order to check inventory levels, or know when an item needs to be reordered, you don’t have to dig through emails or complex logging systems. Instead, you can just scan a barcode and have all the information you’d ever need about that asset!
Manually updating your database is a task that can take hundreds of hours over the course of a single project. Remember, humans may make mistakes but barcodes don’t. In fact, an average human is capable of making a mistake once after every 300 characters. Barcode scanners are famous for their accuracy for a reason. Even though barcode scanners collect and record inventory data at exceptional speeds, the error rate is just one in 3 million. Such accuracy can go a long way to increasing the efficiency of your business.
Read more: The Top 5 Benefits of Asset Tracking Software
Scale easily
Businesses may keep changing by the day. It is very problematic for business owners to keep track of their organization’s equipment or inventory tools as they scale, because there are so many factors to take into consideration. Even predicting the volume of assets needed to scale more efficiently can be problematic. Investing in an equipment tracking software with barcodes can help you out no matter how big your company becomes.
Barcoding systems will reduce your labor costs and offer a wide range of options for small, mid-sized and big businesses. This means the software will keep on growing with your company and meet your ever increasing needs. There are many barcode equipment tracking systems out there that are compatible with enterprise resource planning systems. And in case your employees are spread all over the globe, the good news is that most asset tracking systems are based on cloud technology which will further reduce your IT and human resource costs.
Share your queries
EZOfficeInventory is a top class asset tracking software that helps businesses hike up their profits and improve businness workflows. For more assistance, drop us an email at support@ezo.io.
