They’re only useful if you have them

The term ‘mission-critical asset’ can be somewhat misleading because, all-too-often, the assets in question are not regarded by their users as being mission-critical at all.

Hand-held scanners, radios, power tools and calibrated equipment are often misused, misplaced, not returned or not recharged. This is, in part, because the worker fails to see the impact their actions will have on operations.

While the worker’s tasks may be done for the day, there is another shift about to start and these workers will need to use the same mission-critical assets. But often they are not ready for use – assuming the worker can locate them in the first place.  

This narrow mentality has an enormous impact on workplace productivity, which is only now beginning to be understood by industry. In fact, the impact of poor asset management goes far beyond the frustrations of the next shift.

For a start, the search for, or even the checking in and out of critical assets, such as scanners, takes workers away from their primary tasks. When supervisors and managers become involved to search for missing assets, the effect is even more profound.

This lost time adds up quickly. If 20 workers are forced to make a 15-minute trip each working day to locate the tools they need to do their job, they will lose more than 1,000 hours every year (based on 261 working days in a year).

Ultimately, this delays jobs and services. When workers can’t perform their assigned responsibilities on a timely basis, orders are late to be delivered or scheduled maintenance is not undertaken. Any of these events elevate labour costs and overtime, as extended hours are introduced to deal with the backlog, often at higher hourly rate levels.

In addition, contractual penalties or additional costs can be triggered. And more added costs to expedite outbound shipments, such as couriers or even private flights, may be incurred, just to get the order to the customer on time.

Mounting costs

The direct and indirect impact of an inadequate or ineffective asset management process is significant. 

Handheld wireless barcode scanners cost anything between £500 and £3,000 each with batteries costing circa £100 each. Two-way radios cost circa £3,000 each. When all of these costs, both direct and indirect are added up, large facilities can be losing upward of £50,000 every year in both lost assets and time.

Without effective control and management of these assets, industry is effectively pouring money down the drain.

The traditional methods of managing these assets – such as central distribution points or factory and warehouse ‘stores’, manual record keeping, and self-service stations – are not fit for purpose. 

Automated dispensing

So what is to be done? The answer may lie in a new generation of cloud-based automated locker systems, which can be located close to the point-of-use, eliminating ‘walk-and-wait time’.

This sort of system, like Axcess automated lockers from Apex Supply Chain Technologies, control worker access to each asset based on their tasks. This ensures the correct assets are given to each worker. 

Automated locker systems can also manage assets to pre-determined standards to ensure compliance with regulations, quality and safety standards. A good example is the recalibration of tools and gauges, which cannot be checked out again once they have reached their calibration limit.  

With all transaction data held in the cloud, reports can be easily viewed on a laptop, tablet or smartphone. This can provide management with answers to simple, but important questions, such as who has an asset, when was it checked out and what job was it used on?

What’s more, an electronic audit trail is available for all transactions, which identifies not only when an asset has not been returned, but also when it has reached its calibration or certification limit. 

Historically, process improvement and cost-saving initiatives have been focused on areas surrounding activities such as production and service delivery. Asset management has remained a hidden cost for businesses that only now is beginning to be understood. 

Luckily there are now technologies available that allow businesses to easily improve this area of operations.