As businesses grow, the number of tools and equipment to inventory also expands. Without a proper system in place to manage and track these assets, companies can face numerous challenges. These include misplaced or lost tools, increased repair costs and decreased productivity. Using a tool management system can help your organization to mitigate these things. In this article we’ll discuss what a tool management system is, the benefits of using one and how it can improve your tool inventory and tracking.
What is a Tool Management Software?
Tool management software is a program designed to help businesses manage their inventory of tools and equipment. This system helps to track where tools are located, who is using them and when they are due for maintenance or repairs.
A tool management system typically includes features such as barcode scanning, automated inventory updates and real-time location tracking. By automating these processes, companies can reduce the time and resources needed to manage their inventory manually.
What is a Tool Tracking System?
A tool tracking system is a key component of a tool management system. It allows businesses to track the location of their tools and equipment in real-time. This enables companies to quickly locate tools when needed and reduces the chances of tools going missing or being misplaced.
Tool tracking systems use a variety of different tracking methods to find a tool’s location. These include the use of RFID tags, QR codes or barcodes to identify each tool and track its location. These tags can be purchased from vendors such as Metalcraft. This data is stored in the fixed asset tracking system, allowing businesses to view the current location of each tool at any time.
Why is Tool Management Important?
There are several reasons why asset tracking is important for businesses. These include:
- Improved Productivity: An asset tracking system can help businesses to improve productivity by ensuring that employees have access to the tools they need when they need them.
- This can reduce downtime and increase efficiency.
- Reduced Repair Costs: By tracking when tools are due for maintenance or repairs with maintenance schedules, companies can prevent them from breaking down.
- More frequent repairs will save a business money over time.
- Increased Asset Lifespan: Proper asset tracking can also help extend the lifespan of tools and equipment.
- Companies avoid premature wear and tear while extending the useful life of their assets by regularly maintaining and repairing their tools.
- Better Inventory Control: A fixed asset tracking system provides real-time information about where your tools are at, which helps companies to keep track of their inventory.
What is Tool Inventory?
Tool inventory is the process of recording and tracking tools and equipment that a company owns. This includes the type of tool, its location and any associated maintenance or repair needs.
Proper tool inventory management ensures that companies have an accurate record of the tools they own, where they are located and when they need maintenance or repairs. This can help reduce downtime, improve productivity and save the business money on repair costs.
The Importance of Asset Tracking
When your business needs tools and equipment to function properly, a tool management system is incredibly helpful. Simplifying the processes of tracking inventory and keeping up with maintenance will allow your company to spend less time managing their inventory manually. This helps workers to be more productive while simultaneously reducing the cost of repairs. This extends the asset’s lifespan and provides improved inventory control.
If you’re interested in implementing a tool management system for your business, consider the features that are most important to you, such as real-time tracking, automated updates, or barcode scanning. After you find the right system for your needs, you can take control of your inventory and improve your business operations.
The Benefits of Tool Tracking Using Barcode or UHF RFID in a Tool Management System
If you want your organization to be productive and cost-effective, proper management of your equipment is an excellent place to start. When an extensive fixed asset tracking system is implemented (including Ultra High Frequency or UHF and barcode), it’ll make your operations quicker and more accurate. This article will discuss how RFID and barcode can level up your tool tracking system.
Enhanced Visibility and Accountability
A major upside to using UHF RFID/barcode for your fixed asset tracking process is that it makes finding your tools a whole lot easier. With the use of RFID and barcode, your organization can know important information about its tools, from everything to its history, location and status such as lost, checked in or checked out, etc. Knowing this information will simultaneously improve accountability while making it more difficult for your assets to be stolen or lost. When your employees are checking out tools, it encourages them to return them in one piece while taking good care of equipment.
Improved Efficiency and Productivity
When your business uses RFID and barcode for asset tracking, it makes it much easier to figure out exactly where your tools are at. You can use barcodes on your tools so that you can scan them rapidly with a fixed scanner. Once the information is put into your system, your operations will be smoother/more efficient. The power of UHF RFID lets you scan massive amounts of tools without needing to see them. Because of this, your employees can spend less time looking for the right tool for the job. This means that more time can be spent completing jobs and getting things done.
Accurate and Timely Inventory Management
For your fixed asset tracking system to work properly, you’ll need to make sure that your inventory count is accurate. If you want to keep your inventory database up-to-date, barcodes and UHF RFID tags are excellent options. By checking tools in or out with the system, you can ensure that your inventory records are as they should be. This leads to less over or understocking of tools/equipment, which will save your organization money.
Cost Savings through Efficient Utilization
Knowing where your tools are at leads to fewer dollars spent by your organization on replacements. When you’re tracking their usage with UHF RFID or barcode, it also means that you can discover tools that aren’t being used as much as others. Because of this, a manager can rearrange where tools are at or use them for other purposes. This helps the company to make the most of the resources it has while decreasing how many unnecessary or extra purchases take place.
Enhanced Maintenance and Lifecycle Management
With the power of a fixed asset tracking system and barcode/UHF RFID tracking, your tools will be better maintained. With our Cloud based system, Grey Trunk RFID, you can have maintenance schedules for your tools and track the progress of it. This makes sure that your equipment is in working order, because the last thing that you’ll want is for your tools to breakdown when you need them the most. By consistently maintaining your tools and equipment, your business can lower costs by having less replacements to buy.
Scalability and Flexibility
The combination of scalability and flexibility makes UHF RFID and barcode tech a wonderful option for your business, regardless of its size. Low cost and an easy installation are two of the main reasons that organizations like using barcodes. Although UHF RFID costs more in the beginning, they make the inventorying process very swift (which can save on labor costs) and you can scan multiple items at a time. For keeping track of your tools, either one of these technologies can be a great option that can be smoothly implemented without preventing the job from getting done. With new expansions or projects on the horizon, UHF RFID/barcode can meet the upcoming needs of your business.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Using RFID and barcode to track your tools leads to better decision making. With data about how often your tools are used, levels of stock and when your tools are put into maintenance, management can be more strategic. By looking at past trends, they can determine what tools will be needed in the future. Overall, this means that the use of UHF RFID or barcode along with a Cloud based asset tracking software like Grey Trunk RFID can increase efficiency and lead to less wasted resources.
 |  | About the Author: Colby Weber Colby is Grey Trunk RFID’s Marketing Assistant. He enjoys being able to combine his marketing and public relations skills with his writing and graphic design abilities to assist in Grey Trunk’s marketing efforts. He has one brother, a niece, and two nephews. In his free time, Colby enjoys playing video games and trading card games. He’s also a fan of anime and creating digital artwork on his drawing tablet. |