5 Business Benefits of Equipment Tracking

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) (139-slide PowerPoint presentation). The goal of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is to increase equipment effectiveness so that each piece of equipment can be operated to its full potential and maintained at that level. To maximize equipment effectiveness, you need a measurement tool that can help you understand your [read more]

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Businesses worldwide are experiencing high losses due to theft, damage, and misuse of company equipment. The problem is that there’s no way for companies to track where their valuable assets are at all times. Yet, the goal is to have more control and visibility over resources to make better business decisions.

Equipment tracking is one of the most important aspects of running a business and maintaining your equipment. Without proper monitoring, you end up with damaged or missing items, costing you money. Moreover, equipment tracking will help you manage your fleet more effectively, leading to cost savings for your company.

Here are some of the key benefits of using an equipment tracking system:

1. Increased Efficiency

When a piece of equipment sits in one spot for too long, it goes unused and becomes less efficient. It also becomes more likely to break down, wasting time and resources. Then it becomes obsolete, so you’ll have to spend more time looking for replacements. But when you use metal tags and labels for permanent tagging, you get more efficiency out of your assets.

Equipment tracking ensures this doesn’t happen by letting users know where their tools are to get the most out of them. When you know where your equipment is and track its usage, you can be sure your staff is utilizing it in the most efficient way possible. In addition, tracking your equipment helps you save money on fuel and maintenance costs and ensures that the machine gets used as much as possible.

2. Lower Idle Time

Idle time is the amount of time your equipment spends inactive with no work done. This can happen when a piece of equipment sits idle while waiting for an employee to perform a task. It can also occur when you have an excess number of employees on the job.

Operating costs are typically lower during idle times than peak hours. This is because there’s less waste associated with running a machine all day long at total capacity (materials and energy). By reducing idle time, you’re able to reduce costs without negatively impacting production levels or putting less skilled employees in danger.

With equipment tracking, you can set up rules that automatically notify you when a piece of equipment has been idle for too long. It helps you monitor the time each piece of equipment is in use. That way, it increases productivity and saves money by preventing costly downtime.

3. Reduced Maintenance Costs

Once you have a system to track your equipment, you’ll know what works, what doesn’t, and when it needs maintenance implementation. This helps reduce maintenance costs by ensuring that only necessary repairs occur. It also helps identify which parts need more frequent replacement because they’re used more frequently than others. In addition, it can show if an upgrade would benefit a piece of equipment by indicating which parts are prone to redundancy.

Indeed, if you’re not tracking your equipment correctly, getting an accurate view of how much it’s costing you is challenging. And if you don’t know, managing your budget around those costs is tricky. On the other hand, equipment tracking offers a clear picture of what each piece of equipment costs. That way, you can make informed decisions about whether or not it makes sense to keep that piece in use.

4. Improved Customer Service

If your customers can’t rely on you to provide the necessary equipment, they’ll go elsewhere. For example, suppose your equipment is constantly breaking down or missing when needed. In that case, you might lose some of your customers or end up paying for their lost business through higher insurance premiums.

Equipment tracking allows you to offer better customer service by providing more accurate information about when a vehicle will arrive at a job site. This can help reduce delays, which means your customers will be happier and more likely to continue doing business with you.

5. Stronger Security and Control

Equipment tracking can help you strengthen your security and control, which is especially important in an era when employee loyalty is low. Employees are less likely to steal equipment if they know your assets can be easily tracked down and returned. Or if they know, the consequences will be severe enough to make them think twice about stealing in the first place. Your business will also be able to track down stolen equipment more quickly, accurately, securely, and efficiently than ever before.

Conclusion

Ensuring that your company uses its equipment efficiently is essential to running a successful operation. Equipment tracking helps you do that by keeping track of when and where each piece is being used and what type of work it is doing at any given moment. In addition, this process can help employees and managers understand how their work fits into the bigger picture, which means less wasted time and resources.

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