Exploring Asset Monitoring: What, Why, and How

Have you ever thought of how organizations in the present times smoothly manage their extensive array of assets, ranging from machinery and equipment to digital resources? The main challenge they most likely experience in this aspect is that resources are scattered across various corners of the globe. Remote asset monitoring is something that helps them effectively deal with this concern and achieve a lot of success.

With the modern business landscape becoming fiercely competitive with time, effective asset management is the key to staying competitive. As businesses grow and their operations diversify, asset monitoring in a remote context has turned out to be a valuable tool. Using it, organizations receive the capability to effectively manage, track, and evaluate their assets with utmost accuracy. 

Now, if you are looking forward to getting a good idea about the nuances of remote asset monitoring and want to try this out for your business, then you have definitely arrived at the right place! In this guide, we will let you know what remote asset monitoring entails, why it is crucial, and a lot more. So, let’s begin our informative journey:

What is Remote Asset Monitoring?

Asset monitoring refers to the practice of tracking, managing, and evaluating physical assets remotely by making use of special software and hardware. This process often involves the implementation of advanced technologies like GPS tracking, IoT sensors, and AI-powered analytics. 

Asset monitoring solutions based on IoT technology offer accurate real-time information on the status, location, and name of an asset, even when they are dispersed across various geographical locations. These particular systems are most commonly used in construction, manufacturing, mining, healthcare, logistics, and other industries.

Critical Benefits of Asset Monitoring

Now, let’s uncover the significant advantages that organizations can reap from implementing asset monitoring:

• Theft Prevention

Asset monitoring is known for offering real-time tracking and alerts for unauthorized movements or tampering. As a result, it helps in deterring theft events. Also, it facilitates swift response to any suspicious activity. Thereby, it effectively lowers the risk of asset loss.

• Extended Asset Life

Organizations can employ asset monitoring software for tracking the performance, condition, and location of an asset through IoT sensors. It helps managers to see whether the asset is operating properly or necessitates repairing. This knowledge facilitates proactive maintenance, which reduces equipment downtime. As a result, it extends the lifespan of assets.

• Asset Handling Control

With asset monitoring, organizations can effectively manage how assets are employed and handled. It allows them to enforce appropriate handling procedures that ensure that employees are involved in appropriately treating high-value assets. There is even triggering of a manager alert if they fail to do so. Thus, it helps reduce the chances of misuse, minimize wear and tear, and maintain compliance with operational guidelines.

• Employee Behavior Tracking

Asset monitoring systems are involved in offering real-time insights into how employees establish interaction with company assets. It’s because these particular systems can effectively track employee behavior, such as geographic locations, travel times, driving styles, etc. This way, it ensures that they are adopting safety protocols, which is highly important for maintaining a safe working environment.

• Maintenance Scheduling and Tracking

By employing asset monitoring software, organizations can schedule maintenance work more efficiently. It is possible through the real-time data provided by this software. Therefore, it helps in minimizing downtime. Not only that, but it also prevents instances of unexpected failures by making sure that assets are serviced at correct intervals.

• Ticketing System

This particular software also tends to possess robust ticketing capabilities. Integration with a ticketing system helps in effectively streamlining both the reporting and resolution of asset-related concerns. Thus, it ensures that any specific problems are promptly addressed, which in turn boosts overall operational efficiency.

• Asset Failure Prediction

It is possible to lower the production and asset maintenance expenses with timely preventive actions. It also improves asset efficiency. Asset monitoring solutions are designed in a manner that you can make use of for measuring asset KPIs, detecting anomalies, evaluating operation patterns, and predicting equipment failure. 

All this information can be utilized for scheduling preventive maintenance and keeping equipment up and running without any unexpected downtime.

• Asset Data Analytics

By evaluating the data gathered from asset monitoring, managers can receive valuable insights for resource allocation, optimizing operations, and making informed strategic decisions. This data-driven approach can ultimately result in considerable operational improvements.

So, by leveraging all of the discussed benefits, organizations can not only improve their operational efficiency but also enhance safety measures, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge in the industry they are associated with.

Major Technologies behind Asset Monitoring

Here are discussed the most popular technologies that are known for powering modern asset monitoring solutions:

• RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)

RFID technology typically employs radio waves for identification and tracking of objects. It contains tags that help store information and readers, which are again involved in capturing data for those specific tags. 

This technology can prove to be valuable for tracking assets in environments where it is not possible to do line-of-sight scanning. These RFID tags are widely used in industries such as retail, logistics, and manufacturing for effective monitoring of large, high-value assets.

• Barcodes / QR Codes

Barcodes and QR codes refer to tags that are affixed to an item that necessitates an electronic scanning device for reading them. Although QR codes and barcodes are related, they differ in terms of flexibility and capacity. Barcodes are known to be one-dimensional, so it is vital to scan those horizontally. 

On the other hand, QR codes are two-dimensional and, thus, can be read from any angle. It facilitates the transmission of more information. Both of these technologies are commonly employed for low-volume manual scanning and offer a simple and cost-effective means of asset identification. These versatile technologies are used in different industries for tracking and managing assets.

• WiFi Monitoring Solutions

WiFi monitoring solutions are involved in making use of radio waves and local wireless networks for broadcasting asset data from WiFi tags. These systems are also known for keeping track of assets in real time within a defined area. This technology has proved to be valuable in indoor environments where there is the availability of WiFi coverage. It is most commonly employed for monitoring assets within facilities, warehouses, and buildings.

• GPS Asset Tracking Systems

The technology of GPS or Global Positioning System facilitates accurate location tracking of mobile assets. These systems typically use receivers that help in the automatic collection of asset data transmitted by satellites. 

This way, it helps in providing accurate geographic coordinates. With the aid of this technology, it is possible to track fleets, vehicles, and other mobile assets, which contributes to making it invaluable for the transportation and logistics industries.

All of these technologies tend to offer unique advantages and can be chosen based on unique requirements and the environment of the assets being monitored. At present times, many organizations often use a combination of these technologies for the creation of a comprehensive asset monitoring system.

In a Nutshell

Thus, it is evident from this blog post that businesses can get exception control and visibility over their valuable resources by leveraging remote asset monitoring. From prolonging the lifespan of assets to preventing instances of theft, the benefits of this are truly endless. 

So, irrespective of whether you are associated with healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, or any other industry, using remote asset monitoring has become a strategic initiative to stand out in the present times.

We hope you have found this guide to be helpful!