It is well known fact that Asset tracking is an important aspect of asset management and businesses use Asset Tracking for various reasons but primarily to identify and locate an asset within or outside the business premises. Essentially that is what asset tracking means in a nutshell but asset tracking has evolved over the years and now, it is seen as an important tool that can solve various business challenges.
Asset tracking using Barcodes:
Traditionally asset tracking was limited to use of barcodes to identify and track assets since barcode’s an affordable, cost effective, and easy to implement option.
Barcodes are typically one directional (1D) images with bars/columns in blacks and whites and each bar is assigned a unique number as code. Thus barcodes contain a unique code for each item which can be used to identify and locate these items within an inventory.
Retail businesses, FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) etc. have been using barcodes for ages, on food packages, apparels etc. It’s primarily used to identify the item and its manufacturing/expiration date.
Asset tracking in 2023:
It’s fair to say that asset tracking has changed in today’s time. It’s not limited to traditional barcodes now, but a wide range of technological advances have totally revolutionized the way we track items. From using QR codes (quick response codes) which are 2D images, like barcodes, but contain more data and are easy to read and generate and configure, to RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), NFC (Near Field Communication) and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) as wireless means to identify and trace items, we have come very far.
It’s fair to say that these technologies have totally changed the way businesses deal with challenges and bottlenecks that arise from time to time.
Here are some of the challenges that businesses can easily meet using Asset Tracking in today’s world:
Locating Assets Quickly:
Modern Asset tracking options completely remove the need to manually check and locate an item within the warehouse or store. Using RFID and BLE, assets can be located in a very short time period with accuracy in inches, meaning assets can be tracked with accurate info whether it’s stockpiled in a ware house or within the store premises.
Locating an asset on time can be very beneficial for businesses and improve customer experience within the store as well as shoppers don’t prefer to spend a lot of their time on finding an item in a store. Employees can easily locate and assist shoppers in this regard using these techniques.
RFID provides high visibility to assets and helps in locating assets in a fast manner.
Inventory Management:
Managing an accurate inventory/stock of items is very crucial for businesses and especially for retail when items are moving very fast and an accurate inventory can be a game changer.
With online shopping and store pick-ups, this becomes a challenging task for retail businesses. Companies like Walmart, H&M, Zara etc. are using RFID tagging to keep track of articles and their movement to improve customer experience.
Store needs to constantly stack items in the store, moving articles through warehouses and updating the store on daily basis. With RFID, BLE in place this movement of articles can be recorded automatically by installing RFID Readers or BLE set-ups at crucial intersections. Not only that, stock can be updated automatically as items move through the store and POS, giving the businesses real time stock updates.
Asset Information:
Lack of asset information is a challenge for many businesses. From asset usage and asset movement to asset expiration dates, asset information is very critical.
Using various AIDC technologies this problem can be eliminated to a great extent. RFID, QR codes etc. can be used to contain asset information and by tracking assets, their usage and utility can be determined as well. This in turn will let the businesses know which items are in use or demand and which aren’t, which items need to be stocked and which needs to cleared as soon as possible.
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