Whether you’re working in the equipment manufacturing, distributing, or field service sectors, managing your assets and inventory effectively is critical for maximising profit margins. Proper management can also save on costly mistakes, improve overall productivity, and ensure everything is tracked and valued in real-time. Having worked with clients across these industries, we’ve identified several best practices for asset and inventory management that have fuelled their growth.
Conduct Regular Audits
Auditing may be a standard operation in most (if not all) businesses, but it can easily be overlooked when other priorities arise. Unfortunately, it’s when audits get skipped that problems occur. Regular auditing of your equipment and part inventory will help identify any discrepancies, faults, maintenance issues, or mix-ups, so you can address obstacles before they become larger, more costly problems. Regular audits will also help you determine the actual value of your assets and usage frequency of parts, helping you forward plan, and effectively manage capacity.
Label All Assets
Another best practice businesses should consider adopting is labelling their assets using unique identification numbers. Scannable, unique QR codes are perfect for quickly identifying assets, verifying their location, and determining their status. In addition, for manufacturers and distributors, placing QR codes on either your assets or asset packaging can provide your end users with a seamless way to register their new purchase for warranty and book after-sales servicing. Asset and facility management software like mendrhub stores all QR codes linked to equipment details, along with supporting integrated customer registration and after-sales servicing, making the addition of these labels an affordable way to add significant value.
Implement a Just-In-Time (JIT) System
The Just-In-Time system is a type of inventory management where you work closely with your suppliers to ensure raw materials arrive precisely when production begins, not any sooner. The goal here is to have the absolute minimum amount of inventory on hand to meet current demand. Adopting JIT practices has been shown to reduce excess inventory and the associated holding costs. It also helps you maintain a strong relationship with each supplier, which is required to ensure inventory is delivered as needed.
Use a Centralised Asset Management System
Using a centralised asset management system to track all assets and parts from factory to warehouse to end user can transform the operational efficiency and overall experience of your procurement, warehouse, and service facilitator teams. A system like mendrhub will provide detailed reports of asset service and logistics history and whole-of-life costs to help you determine economic viability and proactively manage your assets.
You can even monitor and move spare parts between locations and technician’s van stock, or create purchase orders to refresh inventory shortages. Workflow automation and technician scheduling also help to ensure your assets are managed efficiently and effectively.
Running a successful business means having a full view of company operations – especially your assets. By following these best practices, you’re setting yourself up for success. Are you interested in how an asset and facility management system like mendrhub could work for your business? Get in touch today to have a chat.