IoT Asset Tracking in Factories -Where Intelligence and Asset Management Meet
For many organizations, tracking an asset at every move of its journey, in real-time, is a critical requirement. With tracking and analyzing, managers can make better decisions depending on real-time data, operating performance, etc. One of the significant factors of IoT that will benefit factories is asset tracking. From tracking tools to tracking people, there is a number of ways for factories to take benefit of asset tracking. As per the study of Mobile Experts, the asset tracking IoT device market will rise thrice,e from 22 million to 70 million devices by 2022.
What is Asset Management & Tracking?
Basically asset tracking and asset management refer to the structured process of analyzing and maintaining things of value for a business structure or factory. mostly, manufacturers or asset owners have utilized asset inventory management solutions to monitor their assets and they have been utilizing different operational technology solutions like SCADA systems.
Enterprise Asset Management applications contain a simple barcode or RFID solutions to GPS tracking. Asset monitoring and control have been mostly executed by M2M systems and SCADA systems.
All of these have synchronized parallel with an organization and have been utilized by separate stakeholders for various purposes. These solutions have been providing data on the present status, handling process, managing assets, design maintenance strategies, record locations but they all have been concentrating on independent functions, different groups of stakeholders and processes.
IoT-Driven Digital Asset Management
An IoT-powered digital asset tracking and management solution integrate multiple contributors, processes, workforce and assets across the business value chain into a unique “integrated planned system”. IoT-enabled smart digital asset management software does everything that conventional solutions manage such as a location of an asset, its present state; control asset lifecycle, manage processes, etc. Also, it includes intelligence and innovation to automated workflows, real-time alerts, insights from information, edge control of assets, predictive maintenance and real-time visibility.
How it Exactly Work?
Basically asset Tracking is a complete solution provided in SaaS (software as a service) or deployment model. It is formulated as a transmitter (which includes Beacons, RFID tags) and receivers (IoT Hubs) attached to a cloud database (IoT Platform). Transmitters are located on tracked objects. Location data is gathered by IoT Hubs located in critical places such as storage locations. After the IoT Hub transmits the information to the IoT Platform, that information becomes available online through web and mobile applications. In addition to that, the IoT Platform enables easy control and management by describing simple rules and alerts.
Tracking Tools
The first use case for asset tracking in factories is on tracking tools. On the surface, it is simple to track tools that will allow employees to know it’s location which cut down on idle time spent searching the tools. The main advantage is by knowing how many times the tools are being utilized and where.
From this information, managers will be able to forecast when tools will break and required to be replaced, or when maintenance will need to be performed which will helps to eliminate downtime. Additionally, the absolute placement for tools and the accurate number of devices that are required can be determined.
Tracking Parts
Another use case for asset tracking is tracking parts. For tracking parts with a shelf life, assuring that they are regularly rotated and used which can cut down wastage. Insights given by data are especially valuable. By tracking parts and knowing how quickly they are being utilized, purchasing becomes extremely easy and accurate that prevents both excess and shortages. Tracking parts appears with many financial insights as well.
However, by tracking what parts come in and how quickly they get processed and shipped out, precise income projections can be made. Additionally tracking parts can be very essential for both auditing and fraud detection as well. With a lot of physical parts moving, parts can be in different locations or even passing through the assembly line. Both of these processes can be very time consuming if operating with manual operations. The capability to automate these tasks via an asset tracking solution would be a benefit for any small to large scale factory.
Tracking Employee
The third use case is tracking employees. Tracking employees in factories will allow quick emergency support and assuring that people are only in areas where they have access. There is a little amount of insight to be acquired from this, such as tracking employees’ movement to know if a few parts are stored too far off of the assembly line or not. In addition to that, if employees are in potentially unsafe situations, tracking their movements can protect workplace injury or harm. Tackle the potential of IoT to create your workplace more effective, safe and productive with hIOTron’s connected worker IoT solution to acquire real-time insights into worker location.
- Analyzing the activity of employees during shifts by monitoring their movement, time spent in an allocated area and entries in certain facilities will help a manager to understand how to magnify their performance as well as cut down on labor costs by removing wasted time and eliminating redundant employees in processes.
- Assigning employees and allocating them to new and high priority tasks rapidly by utilizing their location in the facility.
- Tracking the movement and usage of moving equipment by providing their drivers with a portable location tag.
Asset tracking will increase efficiency and safety in addition to largely increasing processes around asset and inventory management. Every factory could take advantage of becoming smart and implementing an asset tracking IoT solution. Proper asset management and sustaining their usage by calculating the return on investment (ROI) are important for manufacturers to optimize their processes and minimize costs.
Interpreting that efficient asset management is a crucial concern for businesses that look at comparing productivity with cost-effectiveness as well as the efficiency with innovation; hIOTron supports you to make correct asset management decision to allow automation more approachable.