top of page
  • Lavanya R

How Asset tracking can be beneficial?

Updated: Mar 18, 2022

Traditional asset tracking is being replaced by modern and efficient asset tracking technologies, which enhance company possibilities by improving asset location and health monitoring.

In the absence of an efficient asset tracking technology and system, businesses face numerous challenges in asset monitoring and management. Missing or misplaced assets, damaged commodities, and objects reaching unknown destinations have all been caused by the time-consuming and difficult process of asset management.


Furthermore, with a traditional asset monitoring system, relatively less information about assets is captured. This limits the visibility of asset tracking to sellers and buyers. There are also restrictions in place to protect the assets being sent in varied situations and the event of damage.


Asset tracking software's industry has increased in recent years as a result of its huge success in helping firms manage changeable products and items. Because IoT and connected device tracking solutions are replacing manual processes that are error-prone and lack other forms of traceability, they are acquiring prominence in every organisation for every shipping/movement and transaction. RFID, sophisticated sensors, and other IoT M2M (Machine to Machine) technologies provided new ways to interface with tracking systems and log information in more efficient ways than previously used methods.


New ways and technologies for Asset tracking

Asset management IoT systems rely on underlying health and location tracking technologies to increase their efficiency based on the needs and use cases at hand. Finding new techniques to replace the old methods became required since the old methods proved to be breeding grounds for inaccurate communication and suspicious activities. These new technologies allow for the tracking of large amounts of data at rapid speeds. They can transfer a wide range of data from sensors that convey location data, shock and vibration data, and read encoded data on goods, among other things, over great distances.

Previously, when assets were relocated, they could only acquire data from manual maintenance at specified locations where manual audits were conducted. This was also quite expensive because they had to pay for the crew as well as the additional maintenance regardless of whether the products being carried were damaged or not. This demanded the adoption of improved technology that didn't require manual scanning and could track assets in transit across land and sea and inside warehouses and industrial sites.


RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)


New solutions and IoT devices should set up trusted information exchange across the board, as well as fast and efficient resource tracking from one location or area inside the warehouse or manufacturing facility to the next. Each asset in the warehouse should be accurately tracked by the gadgets that power the solutions. As a result, RFID technology, rather than the outmoded Barcode technology, makes operations more reliable with fewer human errors. Even though both of these technologies are still widely used, their functionalities differ, and the former outperforms the latter in terms of dependability.

RFID (Radio-frequency Identification) tags are connected to a commodity and receive and transmit radio signals. The signals generated from these tags can provide accurate information on commodities that can be automatically identified by readers. The location of the item, its state, and the unique number linked with it are all possible pieces of information. Unlike barcodes, RFID tags do not need to be read nearby. When they are close to a reader that will communicate the information to the receiver, they can be identified more easily. Unlike barcodes, RFID tags do not need to be read nearby. When they are close to a reader that will communicate the information to the receiver, they can be identified more easily. RFID tags can also be passive or active. The passive tags are only activated when the radio waves are decoded by the readers. The battery-operated active tags may be read from a greater distance. However, this technology can easily be manipulated to leak critical information, it is vulnerable to several security laws.



NFC (Near-Field Communication)


Another emerging technology that organizations are using to track assets that require more safe monitoring at a high frequency is NFC. Near-field communication (NFC) is widely used in mobile payment apps. They can, however, be used for asset tracking in high-security environments. They are utilized for very accurate, easily deployable item detection because they can only sense signals at a length of a few inches.

Within warehouses, NFC technology can be utilized for registration, safe logins, asset identification, location service during transportation, automated asset tracking, and a variety of other applications. They are, once again, capable of accurately reading a wide range of information.


GPS Tracking Devices


Long-range communications are provided by GPS for goods that are transported via inaccessible areas such as the ocean or isolated locales. They might stop at a few different places before arriving at their final destination. When GPS sensors attached to vehicles or cargo ships transmit the location of pallets or commodities as they arrive at different sites, it is quite helpful.

Sellers and buyers can both benefit from more access to the status of their products as they travel. They can also communicate information about the condition of the object with the additional sensors. These sensor data are always used to make the best decisions possible when it comes to auditing, inspecting, and making sure the quality of products as they are delivered.


Satellite


Where GPS is ineffective, satellite communication can be used to get the current location and other status information for objects being shipped via rural areas and ocean surfaces. It necessitates specialized knowledge and device integration, and so takes time to implement. To enable this tracking capability, satellite IoT devices are typically installed inside huge ships or containers within vehicles.

Asset tracking frequently requires more than one of these IoT solutions. Asset tracking allows businesses to recover lost income by keeping track of their utilities, assets, and products. Vendors may easily manage their items' state during transportation without spending a lot of money due to damage, avoid theft, and expand their delivery routes to new regions.

The asset tracking system provides a detailed study of their asset tracking capabilities, resulting in cost savings and increased monitoring and maintenance resource allocation. The time spent on manual audits was greatly reduced because the devices could be managed from afar and actions were done only when necessary. Organizations must adjust their present plans to match with the latest and most modern innovations as asset monitoring gets more advanced with IoT capabilities that have never been seen before.

7 views0 comments
bottom of page