Asset Tracking Best Practices - Where to Start?

The words "Asset Tracking" sounds like intimidating, high-concept business jargon, but in reality all  asset tracking really means is to count how many things of value are present. Are all the items that should be in a certain location there? Are all the things that need to move from point A to point B doing so? Whether it's looking for only one item, or counting thousands and thousands, what asset tracking should ultimately give you is a useful number. 

Usefulness of Asset Tracking

Why that number is useful might be the next question to answer. Considering the meaning of the word "asset" as anything of value owned by a business or person, it makes sense that as an owner, keeping track of possessions makes good financial sense. This is especially true in the world of retail or manufacturing, where items are physically moved often. 

What might come as surprising to some is that even in places where it's not expected for items to move   often it can be a smart idea to find ways to track the item. For instance, employee theft can put assets at risk that might never be moved or touched under normal circumstances. If an office gets a lot of foot traffic, it makes sense to have ways to guard assets that could be at risk from crimes of opportunity. One potentially devastating loss for any business would be the loss of laptop, especially if it stores important information. Due to their portability and cost, they're very vulnerable to theft. Tracking this item, even if it never leaves the office, can be a worthwhile investment if it prevents the loss of valuable information and time. 

For manufacturers, keeping on top of orders and knowing that each shipment that went out was the correct shipment can require more than just humans and their error prone nature. The results of human error can be devastating, too, as anyone who has ever been late with an order can report.

RFID Can Solve Asset Tracking Problems 

Asset tracking can solve many of the problems listed above, and at SimplyRFiD, we believe that RFID solutions can solve many of the problems with asset tracking itself. In the next post in this series, we'll describe how we're using RFID solutions for our own in-house asset tracking needs.