Into the Clouds:
In our previous article, we explored the benefits of tracking equipment using an IoT solution. To recap, an equipment tracking solution can help businesses prevent theft and loss by providing real-time visibility into location and movement. They also help increase productivity by ensuring critical equipment is in the right place when it’s needed. And, with customizable reports and historical data at hand, an equipment tracking solution can help businesses better utilize and maintain high value equipment, improving the ROI.
Now, you may be thinking this all sounds good in theory but how does it work in practice? How substantial is the initial investment into an equipment tracking solution? How complex is the deployment process?
The good news is that most IoT solutions are designed to be deployed quickly and easy to use. Cloud-based software enables users to keep an eye on their equipment anytime, from any device, and wireless hardware makes installation quick and painless. The solutions are also scalable so businesses can prioritize the equipment they want to track initially, helping to keep the cost within budget, but then add equipment as their business and inventory grows.
To give you a better idea of the ease in which an IoT solution can be deployed, here is a typical step by step process for tracking equipment:
Step 1: Complete an inventory audit to understand the full scope of the assets utilized by your business.
Step 2: Select the assets you want to track. These can be powered or non-powered but in either case they should be assets that are critical to your projects or day-to-day operations.
Step 3: Chose the conditions you would like to monitor. Beyond GPS location tracking, you may want to also keep an eye on temperature and humidity, run time, etc.
Step 4: Attach an asset tracking device to each asset that you wish to track.
Step 5: Input applicable maintenance, repairs, and warranty data into the software portal so that you can receive alerts and better manage your assets.
Step 6: Take a deep breath! You can now relax knowing that you have full visibility into your critical equipment and any issues or anomalies will be flagged immediately. Stay tuned as we continue to unpack equipment tracking using IoT!