Why is asset tracking and asset management important?
Does this sound familiar: equipment goes missing, unnecessary purchases are made, time is wasted searching for assets and information, and no one has a comprehensive overview of the equipment and assets. Don't worry, you're not alone. This is the everyday reality in most businesses.
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These problems quickly lead to bigger issues, such as declining profitability and unsustainable consumption. Especially in the era of current economic uncertainty and growing environmental problems, it is essential to improve the management of machinery, equipment, and other assets.
In this blog post, we will delve deeper into four key reasons that make asset management an essential part of any organisation's operations.
1. Environmental sustainability and cost savings
In modern organisations, environmental responsibility is a central part of operations. It is not an additional cost but a strategic focus area that reduces costs and creates positive perceptions. The most important step towards more sustainable operations is to reduce unnecessary consumption and emissions.
Asset management significantly improves the ability to act responsibly towards the environment. Timely and easily accessible information about assets and their usage helps make decisions that are both environmentally and financially sensible.
Based on this information, unnecessary purchases can be reduced, and equipment usage can be optimised. Data-driven planning and reuse of assets reduce material usage, emissions, and costs. Additionally, unforeseen and expensive surprise investments decrease.
2. Efficiency and improved control
Procurement planning based on up-to-date asset data directly improves profitability. In addition, a culture of responsible asset management makes work more efficient.
No one wants to waste time searching for missing assets or spend days on inventories. A digital asset register provides reliable asset information that is easily accessible to everyone, saving time on searching for asset information or assets.
Improved control over equipment, on the other hand, means that the organisation has the ability to utilise and enrich this asset information. Enriching the information means, for example, using mobile asset management tools to manage equipment maintenance and defect reports, equipment booking, and inventories.
Better control leads to better efficiency, reduced waste, and the ability to plan asset-related actions better than before.
3. Individual equipment lifecycle information and tagging
An essential part of sustainable asset management is the ability to track individual assets with device-specific QR code, RFID, or NFC tags. With these, each individual device is easily identifiable, allowing individual-level data collection to support planning.
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Just look around you. How easily can you determine when, for example, your screen/desk/office modem/conference room projector was purchased or when it needs to be replaced? I dare to say that finding out this information will take a lot of effort.
Device-specific unique asset tags link the physical device to its digital twin, i.e., the digital equipment card. The digital twin consolidates the lifecycle information of that particular device and enables not only viewing but also making fault reports and conducting running inventories. Since it is a readable tag, this information is easily accessible, for example, via a mobile device.
Moreover, the individual information of all devices forms a comprehensive picture of the entire inventory lifecycle, on which the control and proactive financial planning are based.
4. Culture of sustainability
Our attitude towards consumption largely defines our attitude towards responsibility in general. By ‘responsibility’ I mean both environmental and financial responsibility.
If the organisation's culture does not emphasize responsibility in all operations, it is challenging to expect it in any of the organisation’s operations. If all movable assets are considered as disposable, and maximizing their lifecycle is not taken into account, the staff are unlikely to make efforts to reduce emissions or control costs elsewhere.
By creating a culture of responsible asset management, a sustainable foundation for genuinely responsible operations is established at every level of the organisation. It must be clear to everyone that the equipment cannot be considered to be easily replaceable for trivial reasons. Their lifecycle is wanted to be maximized by managing them sustainably and keeping an up-to-date digital asset register.
This, in turn, reduces consumption and unnecessary purchases. At the same time, a culture of responsibility becomes part of the organisation's DNA, which is valued by customers and other stakeholders.
Summary
Navigating the times of economic uncertainty and increasing environmental issues, businesses need to implement new ways of thinking. Reducing consumption and fully utilizing existing assets are essential ways to address these challenges.
Responsible asset management is a key part of an organisation's financial and environmental responsibility. It is based on up-to-date and reliable information about assets and the ability to maximize the use and lifecycle of existing assets.
To integrate asset management into an organisation's operations, a functional digital asset register and other tools for asset lifecycle management are needed. Building a culture based on better control and anticipation can then be initiated. This, in turn, is reflected both in the organisation’s profitability and in environmental impacts.
Since 2010, we have been helping companies build a more sustainable asset management culture. If you are interested in taking the next step towards responsible asset management, do not hesitate to contact us.