Asset Tracking Best Practices: Insights, Uses, & Benefits

Asset Tracking Best Practices: 5 Ways To Advance Your Asset Management

As today's marketplace grows increasingly competitive, it is more important than ever for businesses to implement effective asset management systems to maximize productivity and profitability. 

That's why asset tracking software programs have become a popular investment for companies looking to grow their business. They enable teams to manage everything from asset downtime to depreciation and costs through a single easy-to-use platform. 

This guide will review the core principles of asset tracking and explain five ways you can transform your asset management system into a dynamic component of your business strategy.

Table of Contents

• What Is Asset Tracking?

• Why Is Asset Tracking Important?

• 5 Best Asset Tracking Practices

• Benefits of Asset Operations Management Platforms

• Implement the Best Asset Tracking Practices With UpKeep

What Is Asset Tracking?

Asset tracking is an organized approach to monitoring material inventory and business-critical assets such as vehicles, computers, machinery, or other equipment. 

It uses labeling technology such as asset tags, barcodes, or radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to assign unique identifications to each item. Businesses can then enter these identifiers into computerized programs such as CMMS, which efficiently store, organize, and analyze asset tracking data. CMMS is designed to centralize maintenance information, streamline operations, and tackle manufacturing challenges. 

Asset tracking software can also monitor the movement of material inventory from the moment it enters a facility to the moment of sale. This system ensures proper inventory management by: 

• Keeping track of inventory quantities

• Managing stock levels; and

• Ensuring enough supplies are available to prevent downtime and financial losses

Why Is Asset Tracking Important?

Asset tracking gives businesses a holistic view of their investments' location, condition, and lifespan. This helps businesses in several ways:

• Maintenance and repair management: Asset tracking allows businesses to schedule and prioritize maintenance and repairs more effectively. By keeping track of asset service history, companies can identify patterns or trends in equipment breakdowns and take proactive measures to prevent future failures.

• Prevents asset loss and theft – Asset tracking systems assign unique identifiers to every item so businesses can monitor their location, who is responsible for them, and any scheduled maintenance or repair activities. These systems can quickly identify discrepancies and simplify recovering lost or stolen assets. 

• Optimizes asset utilization – Asset tracking software provides powerful insights businesses can use to identify underutilized or overutilized assets, optimize their allocation, and guide future purchasing decisions.  

• Reduces costs – By accurately tracking asset locations and usage data, businesses can identify inefficiencies and make informed decisions to reduce costs. Asset tracking helps avoid unnecessary replacement or duplicate purchases, optimize maintenance schedules, and avoid costly downtime.

• Compliance and auditing – Asset tracking systems provide businesses with the documentation and records required for compliance and auditing purposes. 

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5 Best Asset Tracking Practices

#1: Measure Asset Tracking Metrics

Metrics will vary in importance from company to company. When you select your business's best metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), you can use the data to reduce downtime and boost revenue.

Some broader metrics include:

• Equipment downtime – the amount of time that equipment is not operating, whether due to equipment failure or scheduled maintenance or repair. 

• Maintenance backlog – the time taken to complete all pending maintenance tasks.

• Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) – The duration that equipment operates before failure

• Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) – The average time taken to complete equipment repairs

• Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) – a measurement of plant productiveness

Use UpKeep’s EAM Capabilities To Maximize Tracking Metrics

Enterprise asset management (EAM) is a business application used to optimize investments, oversee the management and repair of assets, and manage costs by:

• Increasing equipment uptime

• Reducing unnecessary downtime

• Optimizing maintenance operations 

• Extending equipment lifetime

• Tracking depreciation and warranties

EAM software goes beyond maintenance management and encompasses the entire lifecycle of an asset, from acquisition to disposal. It helps organizations optimize asset management strategies and make informed maintenance, repair, and replacement decisions.

#2: Create Unique Tags To Track All Assets

Asset tags identify inventory or moveable equipment such as computers, furniture, vehicles, handheld tools, and repair kits. Once an item is tagged, critical information is entered into the CMMS, including purchase price, payment terms, operations manual, and recommended maintenance schedule. 

This data can be easily utilized for accounting or preventive maintenance purposes. If an item becomes lost or requires repair, asset tags indicate its location and more detailed information that can assist technicians in completing the necessary work. 

Various types of asset tags can be used, including:

• Barcode tags – Barcode tags encode a unique identification number in a barcode format. These barcodes can be scanned using barcode scanners or from any mobile device. 

• QR code tags – QR code tags are similar to barcode tags but in QR format. QR codes can store more information than barcodes, making them more efficient in asset tracking. 

• Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags – RFID tags use radio waves to transmit data wirelessly. They can be read from a distance without direct scanning, making them more effective for large or complex facilities. 

Use UpKeep’s Mobile CMMS To Create Identifiers and Track Assets in Real Time

Businesses can use a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) like UpKeep to help implement effective asset tracking.

UpKeep allows users to assign unique identifiers, such as barcode or RFID tags, to each asset and input asset details such as name, description, serial number, location, and other relevant information into our CMMS system. They can easily update asset information, log maintenance tasks, record work history, and track relevant data. 

#3: Collect and Organize Data

Once an item is tagged, critical information is entered into the CMMS, including purchase price, payment terms, product manuals, and recommended maintenance schedule. 

This data can be easily utilized for accounting or preventive maintenance purposes. If an item becomes lost or requires repair, asset tags indicate its location and more detailed information that can assist technicians in completing the necessary work.

As your asset data grows, you will receive a more comprehensive asset utilization and performance analysis, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to maximize efficiency and profitability.

Use UpKeep’s AOM Software To Optimize Asset Data Collection

Asset Operations Management (AOM) combines maintenance, operations, and reliability data to help businesses make informed decisions, optimize maintenance strategies, and improve asset performance. 

UpKeep’s AOM integrates with UpKeep Analytics to deliver clients an automatic business intelligence dashboard. Monitor and analyze asset performance, gather insight on breakdowns to notice trends, and get visuals on asset availability to move things around and decrease downtime — all from one easy interface that prioritizes function and usability. 

#4: Create a Plan & Think Ahead

Once you’ve successfully implemented your asset tracking system, you can measure:

• Equipment uptime and downtime

• Asset value and utilization

• Maintenance cost

• Maintenance backlog

• Schedule compliance

• And more.

Use this data to prioritize assets, evaluate costs, acknowledge certain risks, and assess the benefits. And finally, schedule maintenance, repairs, or replacement of equipment. 

Use UpKeep’s CMMS To Schedule Preventive Maintenance and Repairs

UpKeep's modern CMMS software helps teams create, prioritize, access, and measure their maintenance work orders in a single place. Team leads, supervisors, and technicians can:

• Filter by technician, location, due date, status, and priority level.

• Automatically create work orders and send mobile push notifications to technicians when assigned. 

• Easily attach PDFs of equipment manuals and instructions to a work order.

• Include photos or videos to increase accuracy.

• Assign orders based on priority level and location from a desktop or mobile device.

• Easily communicate any work order updates within unlimited requesters.

• Quickly close out orders upon completion and add any notes.

• Effortlessly access your Request Portal from the mobile app.

• Provide a transparent record of inspections and procedures completed by technicians for future team onboarding.

#5: Set Performance Expectations

Setting expectations ensures that operation and maintenance teams work towards common objectives. By setting productivity targets, you can avoid maintenance inefficiencies and implement strategies to target company-specific goals. 

How UpKeep’s Asset Performance Management Tool Can Help Set and Exceed Your Operation Goals

Asset Performance Management (APM) uses data capture, analytics, and visualization to tell users where improvements should be made and what resources are available at any given time. 

UpKeep can help you track and monitor metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). You can access custom reports and see key indicators at a glance on the dashboard. 

Use Upkeep's asset tracking, work-loan management systems, work order tracking, technician performance monitoring, and analytics to streamline your maintenance operations and exceed business goals fully.

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Benefits of Implementing Asset Tracking Best Practices 

Reduced Costs

When companies rely on manual, spreadsheet-based asset tracking systems, they are far more vulnerable to human error, which could eventually cause the loss of crucial documentation or valuable assets. 

Asset tracking software, however, can: 

• Identify underutilized assets and guide future purchasing decisions. 

• Extend the lifespan of valuable assets by implementing proactive maintenance schedules. 

• Minimize losses due to theft or misplacement of assets.

A Forrester Wave™ study on the economic impact of UpKeep collected data from a manufacturer and found incredible results, including savings of over $1.4M

Those savings accumulated via: 

• A 90% reduction in time spent filling work orders

• A 50% increase in preventive maintenance to reduce production downtime

• More than 3,000 fewer hours spent on unplanned work

In addition, the manufacturer saw a 315% ROI and payback period of fewer than three months. Download the full report to learn more.

Improved Regulatory Compliance

Regulations exist in every industry, although they may vary in complexity. Asset tracking helps facility managers ensure compliance with all regulations governing safety, employee experience level, environmental responsibility, and record keeping.

Asset tracking software simplifies compliance reporting and audits with easy access to:

• Documentation

• Equipment manuals

• Compliance templates 

• Preventive maintenance tasks

• Configurable analytics and reporting. 

An automated tracking system collects, stores, and organizes all necessary documentation, making it significantly easier to maintain both government-mandated and internal compliance.

Optimized Asset Management

Asset maintenance systems take a multifaceted approach to asset tracking, which involves: 

• Real-time maintenance and location tracking of assets

• Insights into asset utilization and performance

• Improved maintenance scheduling capabilities

• Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) 

These capabilities enable businesses to make data-driven decisions, improve asset utilization, and create more efficient maintenance systems. They can be game-changing for companies operating in highly competitive industries. Proper implementation can ultimately lead to drastically decreased costs, increased ROI, and time savings. 

Implement the Best Asset Tracking Practices With UpKeep’s Asset Solutions

Upkeep’s software is an effective and dynamic asset management solution that will transform how you make business decisions.  

UpKeep is consistently rated the best inventory management software in value for cost, usability, functionality, and customer support service. 

Not only that, our UpKeep has more 5-star reviews than any other CMMS and Maintenance Software vendor.

Book a demo today and see why businesses choose UpKeep to meet and exceed their asset management needs. 

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