Real-Time Asset Tracking in Manufacturing: Top 5 Benefits
Capital and operational expenditures constitute the largest share of costs for manufacturers. For example, the equipment required for manufacturing as well as the cost of running it can be quite expensive, leading to high expenditures.
That’s why proper asset management as well as justifying their utilization by calculating the return on investment (ROI) are essential for manufacturers to optimize their processes and minimize costs.
However, effective asset management and audit are something that many struggle with, mainly due to a lack of a digital, centralized place to track and monitor their real utilization.
That’s how real-time asset tracking software was born, and manufacturers are now increasingly investing in indoor tracking systems providing them with an overview of their operations.
In addition to calculating asset ROI and improving asset management, there are other benefits associated with real-time asset tracking for manufacturers. Here’s a look at them, along with the essentials of asset tracking in an industrial environment.
What is Asset Tracking?
Asset tracking is the process of tracking a physical asset (often a valuable item like an equipment piece or an employee) in a manufacturing facility to know their exact location and utilization.
The ultimate purpose is to save costs and time by defining the actual usage of an asset, so this data can be used by manufacturers to prevent asset losses, maximize asset utilization, and optimize their role in processes.
To track your assets, you need a combination of software and hardware that collects location data in real-time and displays it on a screen, thus allowing you to have a real-time overview of your processes.
This combination is called a Real-Time Location System (RTLS), and it’s becoming a tool for manufacturers looking to optimize their processes and make a transition to Industry 4.0.
Benefits of IoT Asset Tracking for Manufacturers
Now, let’s talk about the most important benefits of asset tracking in more detail.
1. Discover Actual Utilization of Assets in Processes
Do you know how your moving assets like forklifts or employees are operating during shifts? With RTLS, you can track both moving assets operating across your facility as well as stationary assets like inventory to find out their location during the work day.
This data helps to define asset ROI. For example, by collecting location data that shows utilization patterns, you can answer the following questions:
- When is the asset being used (and when it’s not)?
- How long and frequent are utilization sessions?
- How long is an asset active during a shift or working day?
- Are there any unauthorized or unnecessary breaks in the utilization of an asset?
The collection and analysis of such data are necessary to discover how long your assets are being used in processes, and therefore, help to make decisions to maximize their utilization and availability.
In turn, the maximization of the usage of assets in a specific process often means eliminating redundant ones and saving on capital expenses.
2. Conduct Effective Asset Audit
If you attach a location tag to an asset, you can improve monitoring by identifying lost, misplaced, poorly-performing (and conversely, the best performing), as well as the management of all assets during routine audits.
For example, our own location tags used by Indoorway RTLS come in different sizes, so you can attach them to a wide range of assets, including forklifts, pallets, tugger trains, toolboxes, welder machines, and employees.
The location tags are readable from everywhere where a data hub is present in a manufacturing facility, so you can install this infrastructure to get continuous location status and know if an asset has left the facility or the monitored area.
3. Support Lean Manufacturing Projects
If your organization is running Lean Manufacturing projects like Continuous Improvement to reduce the seven wastes, then a tool like RTLS can be helpful (read this business case for using RTLS to reduce Lean wastes to know more).
In fact, there are multiple ways in which it can support Continuous Improvement that we described earlier on our blog:
- More effective inventory management by attaching location tags to moving inventory carriers to monitor the flow across the facility. This helps to reduce inventory waste
- Reduce waiting time caused by asset search with location tags attached to mobile tools required by employees
- Reduce motion and transportation wastes by tracking and analyzing the movement of employees and equipment like forklifts and side loaders
- Improve the consistency of Work-in-Progress (WIP) flow.
4. Reduce Labor Costs
It’s a known fact that employee productivity tracking with RTLS can help with the following:
- Monitoring the activity of employees during shifts by analyzing their movement, time spent in an assigned area, and entries in specific facility areas
- Allocating employees and assigning them to new and urgent tasks quickly by using their location in the facility
- Tracking the movement and utilization of moving equipment by giving their drivers portable location tags like the ones pictured on the above image.
By tracking the time and activity of employees during shifts, a manager can understand how to maximize their performance as well as cut down on labor costs by eliminating wasted time and removing redundant employees in processes.
5. Improve Order Delivery
By tracking assets continuously and making improvements, you’ll be able to make manufacturing processes more predictable and effective. As a result, you’ll increase the ability of your business to deliver orders within deadlines and improve customer satisfaction.
How can I Start Tracking Manufacturing Assets?
As mentioned, asset tracking requires RTLS for delivering all these benefits. Our own Indoorway RTLS has been specifically designed for manufacturing and uses the technology able to deliver accurate results in complex industrial environments.
If you’d like to learn about more use cases of RTLS in asset management and tracking, feel free to drop us a line at indoorway.com or visit our Asset Utilization page.
