Locating your assets
Adding real time locating capabilities to asset management provides visibility, asset utilization and asset optimization.
By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 2/21/2007
There are at least three good reasons why asset management is one of the fastest-growing segments of the RFID industry, according to Mike Liard, research director of RFID and contactless for ABI Research .
Reason #1: Visibility
“First and foremost, it’s visibility,” says Liard. “Asset management let’s you know what you have.”
With the addition of real-time locating technology, you not only know what you have, but where that asset is located in real time. It’s like locating a needle in a haystack. With that visibility comes two side benefits that are proving to be as valuable as the first: asset utilization and asset optimization.
Reason #2: Asset utilization
“Once you know what you have and where it’s located, you can track how that asset is being utilized and whether it’s being optimized,” says Liard. “You can begin to delve into the choke points around your asset management.”
There is a difference between simple asset management and real-time locating systems (RTLS). The first is used for keeping track of assets that may come and go, like returnable containers or pallets. An end user may want to track when a container enters or leave a facility, for instance, to know how long it was in the field. But it isn’t necessary to know exactly where that container is at all times.
Reason #3: Asset optimization
A real-time locating system (RTLS), on the other hand, can track the location of a mobile item in real time. In these systems, an active RFID tag attached to the asset being tracked transmits a signal that is simultaneously read by three different readers. Information from the reader is triangulated by a server to pinpoint the location of an asset to within a few feet of its location. With that information, you know how long an asset has been sitting in one place instead of being used.
“With RTLS, you’re not just tracking whether you have the asset, you’re tracking the physical location of that asset,” says Gary Latham, director of industry solutions for WhereNet.
Today, RTLS systems are being used to:
--Track the location of trailers and their contents in the yard
--Track the location of totes and containers for parts replenishment or work-in-process on the factory floor
--Track the location of finished goods as they move through inspection, testing, staging and loading onto a trailer.
“When you implement an RTLS solution, your employees spend less time looking for your assets,” says Latham. “A materials handler, for instance, isn’t driving empty as often, which translates into higher productivity of your labor and better utilization of that asset.”
Learn more about asset management and real-time locating systems.
The ROI from RFID
02/19/2007Best Practices: Real time asset management
04/05/2009Passive RFID for asset management
02/21/2007Real-time location systems growing in use
10/02/2007Real-time locating systems basics
05/31/2009
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