Assets are incredibly valuable to all businesses; assets refer to anything with monetary value within a business organisation. Asset tracking refers to the process which tracks your physical assets, which is an integral part of any business operation, especially if your business model involves renting or loaning out assets to customers.
Asset management is a crucial part of inventory management because you need to know the status, location, maintenance schedule and any other information about your assets at all times. Missing assets or equipment that has been improperly maintained can have a detrimental effect on a company’s profits, as you will be responsible for replacing any lost or broken physical assets.
With comprehensive asset tracking, like using asset tags or barcode labels and RFID to locate assets at all times, you will be able to maintain your business assets efficiently and effectively. Luckily, asset tracking software in the UK includes some truly excellent products. All of this has the knock-on effect of growing your business, here’s why:
Streamline Tasks
Improving business processes is one of the most critical aspects of managing a business to ensure you can meet all your orders and grow your customer base. Time management can be a huge obstacle for small businesses, so ensuring that you can improve speed without reducing employee satisfaction or product quality is quite a challenge.
Automated asset management can improve overall productivity whilst keeping everything constant. This is because you can optimise tasks like work order management, asset reporting and more. It also alleviates the inefficiencies of locating lost items or incorrect orders. Less time is wasted on administration, allowing you and your employees more time to grow your business in other areas.
A Productive Work Environment
Employees that are freed up by the convenience an asset management system brings to the business will be more productive and happier workers. In an environment where work is easier to get done, and there is less distracting administration, your employees will be motivated to be more productive and work harder.
Asset management can alleviate unpleasant administration tasks, help hold standards of accountability, so employees don’t get blamed for losses and provide them with the tools they need to get their work completed.
Data-Driven Decisions
Data should govern everything within your business; it’s a reliable source of information that tells you what’s going on, detailing everything happening beneath the surface that you may not know about. It helps you decide what to spend money on, which is an essential decision for small businesses with tighter margins and more modest budgets.
Automating your asset management can allow you access to data you never had before. With barcodes and scanners, you can discover which of your assets are the most popular, which ones need maintaining and even find out whether any of your suppliers are consistently letting you down. Audit reports will allow you to see when and where assets were lost, improving your chances of finding them or holding appropriate employees accountable. All this data helps you to identify trends and see future opportunities to improve your overall business decisions.
Eliminate Manual Processes
Manual typing and writing can lead to many mistakes. There’s as many as one mistake in every 300 keystrokes typed by a human, compared to one in every three million when this process is automated. Human error can be dangerously costly, so manual processes should be updated as soon as possible. An automated asset tracking process will have the knock-on effect of improving other areas of your business, such as finance, HR, procurement and IT. With automation, your employees are free to do their jobs with a more accurate and reliable system in place.
Improved Cash Flow
Poor cash flow is the number one cause of business failure, and many small businesses will close due to this. Therefore, it is crucial to find the best ways to improve your cash flow by investing in systems with the best return on investment.
Automation is vital for managing cash flow. Aside from the automated software that can enable businesses to manage their funds, asset tracking can give you full visibility of your assets, allowing you to know when things have been lost, stolen or misplaced. This can help you avoid costs arising from repairs or having to replace stolen or lost equipment. And once you’ve used all that data to streamline your business processes, you can save money in lots of places you didn’t even realise you were spending.
Track Repairs and Maintenance
Assets need to be in working condition to prevent breakdown and costly repair or replacement costs. Asset tracking can provide reliable and useful audits that can flag up when your assets aren’t up to scratch, allowing you to step in and make any necessary repairs before the state of your asset worsens. Additionally, you will be able to collect data about how frequently assets are becoming in a state of disrepair, which could lead you to make smart business decisions about changing your assets to more reliable models.
There are so many reasons why an asset tracking system can help businesses grow their profits by improving their business operations. At GSM Barcoding, we can provide you with a complete barcode system for small business. Contact us today for more information.
