It’s not a topic that many New Zealand organisations would like to talk about, but the fact is that some companies operating in this country still do not have a thorough, in-depth understanding of where all of their assets are at any given time.
Asset tracking supports New Zealand freight and distribution companies and their customers by locating and redeploying existing assets, limiting the need to buy or produce new ones, reducing labour costs, improving profits, and increasing customer satisfaction by making sure products arrive at the right location, at the right time, and in the right condition.
Assets commonly tracked include:
- Vehicles, such as cars, trucks, and trailers
- Reusable containers and pallets, including those for raw materials and finished goods
- Emergency equipment and hazardous chemicals
- Engines, including aircraft, diesel, power train assemblies
- Medical supplies, including instrument containers and equipment
- Office equipment, including computers, printers, desks, chairs etc.
The application of asset tracking processes to improve the monitoring and visibility of high-value assets such as medical supplies and equipment for the healthcare sector is of particular importance, given recent reports of equipment going missing even within hospital sites themselves, let alone in the distribution process.
The Medical Industry Business Weekly – Dot Med, reported: “As far as mobile equipment goes, experts say that approximately 30% of hospitals’ mobile assets are not available at any given time because they are hoarded by staff members, or stored away without any record of the location – or simply forgotten.”
Today there are two primary technologies which can be used for asset tracking: bar code technology and RFID.
 Bar codes
Using bar code technology, New Zealand companies operating in the transport and distribution sectors can minimise time monitoring the progress of shipments through manufacturing environments and across a transport network. Bar codes enable tracking of individual consignments and automatically capture product movement data at dispatch points, on packing lines, in warehouses and at delivery points. This allows transport providers and their customers to know precisely when goods are shipped, where they are in the transport pipeline and when they will be delivered.
The value of the bar code lies in its accuracy and efficiency. It is an incredibly robust, reliable technology that costs virtually cents to produce and yields high returns on investment. Coupling bar code technology with a leading asset tracking system, such as the Hardcat bar code/RFID auditing module, enables organisations to accurately identify fixed and portable assets – from vehicles, tools, machinery and other plant equipment. Asset information is recorded via a hand-held bar code reader, which has a pre-programmed interrogation system enabling the system user to collate data efficiently, accurately and in an organised and efficient format.
RFID
While traditional equipment like bar codes and bar code readers are still often relied upon for asset tracking purposes, recent advances in RFID technology offer New Zealand companies powerful asset tracking benefits in a variety of settings.
RFID can offer unique benefits within asset tracking environments as the technology can be faster and more accurate than bar code readers because it is automated, and thus does not depend on people to ensure that tags are read, either at all or quickly enough. RFID can also be read in transport environments, where bar code labels are difficult to read, or in harsh environments where tags must be made of materials that cannot accept a bar code.
Employing RFID technology in an asset tracking process can provide a wider return on investment than straight financial gains. RFID offers the unique ability to provide efficiency gains, improved productivity and visibility, speeding up the supply chain, a higher quality of service to customers, and correcting mistakes when they occur.
Food and beverage traders, and distributors to these markets, can also take advantage of automated reading and group selection functionality to quickly identify and locate products affected by a recall. Using RFID to automatically capture serial numbers or lot codes on cartons processed at distribution centres and received in retail environments provides a new level of traceability without requiring time-consuming manual data collection. By accurately and efficiently capturing lot codes, retailers could target their recalls so unaffected products would not have to be pulled from stores.
Getting started
The decision to employ asset tracking services focuses on acquiring more accurate data, to deliver more accurate and timely information, which in turn allows companies to make better business decisions to deliver a return on investment.
For New Zealand freight and distribution organisations and their customers, the question should not necessarily be on the value of the assets they are tracking, but rather on the cost of not knowing where those assets are or how many there are.
Given not all asset tracking systems are alike; the implementation of the technology is not always easy, nor straightforward. What is required is help from a trusted asset tracking partner, such as Hardcat.
Dan Drum is the managing director of Hardcat, a world leader in asset management solutions, with over 22 years of experience in the sector;
for further information, visit www.hardcat.com
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