Year after year industries across the globe are hit with eye-watering figures as losses for goods which are misplaced or stolen.
Asset management software should be the first line of defence.
The Challenges Businesses that Own Assets Face
Assets are all around us. People, businesses, governments, institutions, even charities can own assets. At one time the mobile right next to you was the asset for the manufacturing company that made it. The smaller components, also assets to previous manufactures further back down the production line. Today your mobile is your personal asset, but the journey to get it to you was a long one involving multiple supplies and companies. That journey is where the challenge begins.
Whether they have a short shelf life, such as fast-moving goods in the produce arena, that require exceptionally fast delivery timeframes to the large-scale equipment found on a construction site, assets are the lifeblood to the business that owns them. Losing them due to misplacement or theft just isn’t thinkable. And there lies the problem.
Asset security has been a growing concern globally for the past few years. Despite Covid-19 impacting every business on the planet, warehouse and storage facility theft increased. The Annual Cargo Theft Report showed that 18% of thefts occurred in warehouses and production facilities in 2019. That increased to 48% in 2020.
Asset theft is a heavy price to pay.
- Millwood Inc states that the cost of replacing lost packaging, including pallets, costs American businesses between $750 million and $1 billion per year.
- Businesses in the industrial, manufacturing and warehouse and distribution industries experience the most pallet thefts.
Keeping goods safe inside the warehouse is only one part of the solution. What about when your goods leave your base and are on the road?
In 2020 Apple suffered £5 million worth of losses due to goods being stolen from lorries and just recently in 2021 a truck driver in Hong Kong briefly left his truck unattended and was left with a missing pallet of mobile phones worth $194,000.
If Asset management software had been used by the contractors, this might be a very different story.
Logistics and transport companies have to take this into consideration for the assets journey. Just picture you have 50 trucks in transit with 30 pallets on each worth €12,500 each. It would only take one truck going off course to impact your customer with €375,000 worth of losses.
But there is a solution.
Tracking through asset management software.
One device installed on each pallet, powered by low self-discharge batteries, gives the people in charge immediate visibility over where the assets are in their journey from destination a, through b and onwards to c. It gives their clients in turn peace of mind as you can give them visibility over the movement of their assets. Equipped with internal high-gain GNSS antennas, the tracker sends information about the shipment in real-time throughout the whole journey.
Bluetooth sensors add to the security of the assets through immediate theft detection and immediate security alarm triggers. Is someone attempting to open the truck or remove the assets from a pallet? Sensors immediately trigger and transmit the security alarm to you and your security company. It’s possible thieves can be stopped before they’ve even started, so long as you have these tools in place.
If this wasn’t enough, through the GNSS and GSM connection means that data is transmitted almost immediately, giving you chance to react at superfast speeds against the potential threat. The tracking device can be attached either through flat surface mounting or zip ties. The tracking hardware is easy to install and uses very robust technology so that you can even install the software remotely through FOTA (firmware over the air).
The device can be programmed to send regular reports including elements such as the temperature, humidity levels and so on. Each tracker can be recharhed with new batteries in less than a minute, ensuring any downtime is absolutely negligible.
Learn more about the impact of asset management software for the construction industry…
In summary, not having tracking in place might mean you lose more than just the cost of the goods. You could lose business, damage your reputation, impact your insurance policies. The list goes on.
Is it really worth the risk?
Asset management software is a powerful solution that can save your business money, time and resources.
