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Companies Report Widespread,
Costly Asset Tracking Problems
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...according to a new study conducted by
real-time locating system (RTLS) vendor WhereNet.
The survey, completed by 146 operations
managers, engineers and IT executives, found that 84% of respondents still use
manual asset tracking techniques. More significantly, 100% of respondents
admitted that their data capture information was inaccurate because of human
input error, or improper or missed scans. Similarly, 100% of respondents
reported that the latency associated with current inventory systems resulted in
incorrect location of inventory.
"Today's operations executives and IT
teams must meet corporate business objectives of reducing inventory,
compressing cycle times, increasing quality and improving return on assets in
industrial manufacturing and transportation and logistics environment," said
Tom Turner, senior vice president for WhereNet. This survey highlights the need
and desire for companies, large and small, to use technology and implement
solutions that can make their supply chains operate more
efficiently."
The study also found that 78% of companies
reported operations personnel perform at least one search per day for assets,
with 25% reporting more than 10 searches per day; 64% indicated that search
times to locate each item take 30 minute or longer. (For more information, see
sidebar.)
Respondents to the survey included
companies in more than a dozen industries, with 56% coming from the automotive,
aerospace and manufacturing industries. More than 25% of respondents represent
companies with annual revenues greater than $1 billion.
Lost assets = lost
profits
10% of respondents indicate their
companies write off a half-million dollars in annual losses as a result of lost
assets or inventory.
59% of respondents reported their
companies spend up to $25,000 a year, in man-hours alone, searching for lost
assets.
60% of respondents said that
companies spend up to $50,000 annually over-provisioning inventory and
equipment as part of their "standard" operational or manufacturing
processes.
49% of respondents consider the
lack of connectivity between their inventory/assets and the people and
information systems that manage those assets as the most significant barrier to
streamlining their supply chain.
Reprinted by permission Frontline
Solutions, October 2001
www.frontlinetoday.com
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