Organizations thrive or crumble based on their ability to meet the demands of customers, and the warehouse is the nucleus of operational success.
While supply chain management is a leading industry for innovation and evolution (look no further than warehouse robotics and artificial intelligence automation), many businesses still rely on unsophisticated asset tracking and management practices like spreadsheets and manual entry. These dated systems are often to blame for costly downtime, redundancies, incorrect asset inventory, unreliable scheduling, and a lack of accurate records required for regulatory compliance.
Frankly, there is no excuse for this in today’s world.
Multiple asset management platforms exist today to eliminate these exact issues. In many cases, these platforms have evolved significantly with the advancement of technology, making them so intuitive that the mundane tasks often associated with asset tracking become the software’s problem rather than the employees’. For instance, Asset Panda is gearing up to introduce the 2.0 version of its leading asset management platform, which utilizes high tech features that help a wide range of enterprises spanning all global industries effectively manage their assets.
Many organizations have realized huge advantages after making the move to a digital asset tracking and management solution. Here are five benefits of using an advanced platform that will grow and evolve in tandem with your business needs.
Benefit #1: Seeing the big picture with accurate asset tracking
When you have real-time transparency of your assets—whether they’re tools, products, machinery, equipment, components, or IT items like employee computers—you can better track, locate, and maintain your inventory. Knowing what you have, what its condition is, and where your assets are in real time can also help to mitigate cost, reduce duplicate and unnecessary purchases, and save time searching for things your team needs to do their jobs successfully. An advanced asset management system reduces the uncertainty around what your business has by providing accurate reporting on current inventory levels and, in turn, a way to predict and plan for future purchasing needs. Creating a single source of truth offers a big-picture look at the business, eliminates guesswork, and reduces waste in terms of dollars, time, and resources. Accurate asset tracking and management can be a competitive differentiator and is used by a long list of industries searching for cost-effective ways to streamline their operations.
Benefit #2: Solving a business problem with a customized platform
In the lifecycle of a business, the number of products, mix of products, and complexity of the products are all likely to evolve. Utilizing an asset-agnostic system that can provide the flexibility and agility to change and scale alongside the business means you’ll have the data you need for smarter forecasting, budgeting, and decision-making.Look for an asset management solution that solves your unique business problems and can be configured to match your specific assets and workflows. When a solution integrates with your existing processes and scales as your business grows, your team will unlock huge operational efficiencies.
Benefit #3: Reducing guesswork and increasing visibility
With a single source of truth for all your assets, everyone on your warehouse team can access reliable and accurate information on the location, status, and condition of each item. A real-time asset tracking and management solution not only provides clear visibility into the valuable asset data your team relies on but also breaks down data silos that organizations so often struggle with when using spreadsheets or fragmented systems. Customizing your platform to reflect your existing workflows, naming conventions, and use cases enables your team to quickly adopt your asset management program and increase productivity across the board. Further, selecting an asset tracking and management solution that permits unlimited users along with robust roles and permissions empowers employees to do their jobs better, faster, and with more precision, all while increasing accountability and compliance.
Benefit #4: Meeting standards for compliance
With the right asset tracking and management platform, your business can access the requisite information to meet industry standards and compliance regulations for entities such as the Food and Drug Administration, the International Organization for Standardization, and the Code of Federal Regulations. By standardizing your processes to follow a specific sequence of events and require user signatures, and maintaining full historical records and audit trails, an asset management solution can help you achieve compliance.
Benefit #5: Accelerating what’s possible
With real-time asset tracking, barcode technology, custom alerts, and a companion mobile app, your team can boost productivity, increase efficiencies, and discover new ways to provide greater value to the organization. Technology and innovation abound in the supply chain management industry, but investing in the right solutions and leveraging them effectively is key to driving change and accelerating possibilities.Moving from an archaic system to an agile asset tracking and management platform is a critical step to improving business operations, so ensure that the team understands what the system can do and how to best utilize it. Taking the time to empower the team will go a long way in ensuring the solution truly helps your business reap the benefits of accurate asset tracking and management.
Rex Kurzius is the founder and CEO of Asset Panda.
