Every Manufacturer Should Care About IoT applications in Asset Management

Traditionally, manufacturers use technology solutions like SCADA or EAM applications or RFID/Barcode or GPS solutions to track assets. Although these are technology solutions, they work discretely and are controlled by different stakeholders.

Every manufacturer should be concerned about IoT Asset Management

Manufacturing heads still have a million-dollar question about how to manage the technical data that has been collected by various stakeholders for different purposes.

If you use old-school protocols, there are many obstacles

This old-fashioned way of managing assets poses many challenges to manufacturing employees, especially when it is labor-intensive tasks such as visual inspections, handwritten lists, equipment location tracking, and other manual-intensive tasks.

Incorrect decision-making and unhappy customers can be caused by a lack of visibility in the identification of equipment defects, missing material, or bottlenecks.

The problem can be approached in two ways

1. Making asset management simple and easy
2. Gaining complete visibility and control over entire asset management activities

Legacy systems are due to be updated

It is imperative to find new ways to simplify, improve, and make asset management more efficient, as legacy systems are failing to meet expectations.

One of the new ways top manufacturers have leveraged today is investing in the Internet of Things and partnering with a reliable IoT app development company for tracking and managing assets.

The IoT revolution has been a huge success and nearly 70% of vertical industries have begun to see its benefits. Numerous studies have shown that IoT has helped to increase productivity and growth in many industries.
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Understanding the significance of asset tracking in Manufacturing

Asset Tracking Market was valued in 2020 at USD 17.14 billion and will reach USD 34.82 by 2026, at a CAGR of 13.45% over the forecast period 2021-2026. Monitoring and tracking assets are essential due to the high cost of industrial and enterprise assets, particularly fleet equipment.

IoT’s role in asset tracking and management in manufacturing

The IoT Smart Asset Management Solution typically includes the following:

• Asset Health/Condition Monitoring
• Predictive Asset Maintenance
• Asset Lifecycle Management
• Remote Asset Tracking
• Asset Workflow Automation

Benefits of IoT-based Asset Management

These are the top six benefits of IoT-enabled Asset Management Systems for Manufacturers.

1. Optimized cost, speed, and efficiency in the inventory process
2. Improved transfer and management of assets throughout the supply chain
3. time monitoring of asset condition, status, and positioning.
4. Automated, data-intensive asset management eliminates human error
5. security and authentication
6. Access to assets quickly and easily

Applications of IoT in asset management

• Theft prevention
• Condition monitoring
• Location tracking
• Utilization monitoring
• Asset maintenance

Let’s start with IoT applications in asset management
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IoT to prevent theft

Manufacturing staff often find it difficult to deal with misplaced or lost assets. Staff time is wasted when assets are lost or misplaced. This can also increase the cost of assets procurement. Manufacturing heads are turning to IoT because it is powerful enough for asset management. Traditional methods have failed to prevent loss and missing assets.

Here are four ways IoT can help you prevent theft and loss

Beacons

The Beacon-embedded IoT devices play a critical role in the tracking and managing of assets. This system allows for easy sharing of any incident involving the removal or movement of an asset to their supervisors or managers.

An alert message will be sent to the smartphone when such an event occurs. The team or individual responsible will then be notified via the phone and asked to take the appropriate actions.

Smart tags with sensors

The combination of smart tags with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensors and IoT can dramatically reduce any fraudulent activity within the warehouse of the inventory or other parts. The movement of any asset is immediately captured and reported to the appropriate authority to prevent loss or theft.

Geofencing

It is also known as a geographic fence, which is created by app developers. It creates a barrier at specific locations that vehicles, products, and people must be monitored. If someone or something breaches the barrier, an immediate warning is sent to the person so that they can take the appropriate actions. This system makes it impossible to steal goods without permission.

Open notification

This is a great way to stop fraudulent loading and packing. Staff receives alerts from IoT devices embedded into packages when someone opens a package to steal valuable assets. They are mostly used in shipping containers to protect assets from theft during asset transitions.
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IoT to condition monitoring

Condition monitoring involves monitoring and tracking equipment, machinery, tools, and other assets. This technique is crucial to monitor the condition of assets being transported, especially chemical engineering.

This can also be applied to machinery that is continuously in use. Manufacturers need to use IoT-based condition monitoring because they can’t manually check the assets in certain places.

Manufacturers can attain condition monitoring using IoT-based technology.

• Improved asset performance
• Increased asset visibility
• Improved workplace safety
• Instant alerts on asset conditions
• Predictive maintenance of assets
• Extended asset life

IoT for location tracking

Manufacturers have difficulty tracking assets in a warehouse, inventory, or any other part of the project area. Delays in shipping can also lead to increased costs and poor customer service.

This task can be tedious and time-consuming. The problem can be simplified with an IoT-enabled asset tracking system.

IoT has the advantage over RFID-based location tracking systems because it provides real-time asset locations and uses all tracking options such as GPS, Wifi, or cellular networks to do the job.

Some of the benefits of IoT asset location tracking systems are

• Minimal human intervention and errors
• Faster actions based on real-time data
• Optimized asset utilization and space
• Proactive supply chain

IoT for utilization monitoring

Many assets in project areas are often underutilized because they haven’t been used for a long time. This makes it important to monitor such assets continuously, which can prove labor-intensive.

Not only is it time-consuming to monitor assets, but also the potential for businesses to lose significant revenue if they are not used to their full potential. An IoT asset management system simplifies the laborious tasks and helps staff to save a significant amount of time, and cost for the manufacturers.

These are the top benefits of IoT asset management

• Monitor assets continuously
• Track asset health
• Locate and use assets wisely
• Reduce asset procurement cost
• Reduce asset waste

IoT for asset maintenance

It is crucial to maintain asset health through regular maintenance. Manufacturers spend one-third of their money on this. Manufacturing success is dependent on asset health.

Manual asset maintenance systems can be costly as people don’t know what’s going on inside machines. It is possible to avoid a machine breakdown during critical production levels.

IoT-based predictive maintenance systems are employed in manufacturing facilities to overcome this problem.

With a predictive maintenance system, monitoring the health of assets is simple. IoT is used to monitor the health of assets and machines. This data is fed into a predictive maintenance system that can predict asset failures or downtime.

This allows manufacturers to reduce the cost of regular maintenance and service only those machines that are in need. This prevents unexpected costs, downtime, and production disruptions.

Here are the benefits of IoT-predictive maintenance systems

• Reduce costs by 12%
• Improve uptime by 9%
• Reduce safety, health, environmental, and quality risks by 14%
• Extend the lifetime of an aging asset by 20%

Summary

The above discussion shows that manufacturers need to be concerned about IoT asset managing as it could save time and help reduce overall asset-related costs.

You should invest in an asset management system if you don’t have one. This will help reduce your asset-related problems, save you time and money, and provide insights that can lead to better decisions.