How Barcodes Aid With Effective Asset Tracking

 

Ever since the very first barcode was created and scanned in 1973, it's use has now widely increased from simply being utilized to identify the product and its price or expiry date. Now, these are being used for inventory management, supply chain and asset tracking too. Asset tracking with barcodes New Zealand has also vastly improved data accuracy and quickened the process of managing inventories. Let's look further at how barcodes aid with effective and hassle-free asset tracking.  

What's Barcode Asset Tracking?

With barcodes becoming widely used and accepted in both consumer and business markets globally (Because of their ease of use and low running costs), organizations like GS1 (Which sets the standard for barcode use globally) have estimated that more than 5 billion barcodes are scanned on a daily basis. 

But, just what is  Asset tracking with barcodes New Zealand? According to experts, barcode asset tracking is a cost-effective and easy to use way for businesses of all types and sizes to easily manage and track their physical assets or products. And whether they're used for stock control and inventory or life-cycle management, there are two elements or aspects which make barcode asset tracking possible, and these are a barcode label and reader. 

And although barcode labels come in different forms, and their capabilities vary, a major factor that makes barcode asset tracking so appealing for various businesses is the ability to print barcodes on-site. 

 

And once data is printed and assigned to a unique barcode, it is printed and affixed to an asset (Regardless of whether it's a fixed asset, IT assets like keyboards or monitors, or current assets like inventory and stock). 

Asset tracking with barcodes New Zealand is also a convenient and inexpensive replacement for the manual use of pen and paper, and it also increases inventory accuracy, speeds up asset data collection, lowers asset tracking costs, reduces errors, simplifies record-keeping, and requires almost little or no employee training. 

How does it Work?

Apart from being used to provide product information and price, asset tracking with barcodes New Zealand is also used in various processes for the travel, advertising, and gaming and entertainment industries. But, no matter what barcode system is being used, the process always remains the same. 

As opposed to more complex solutions like RFID tracking, barcodes require less hardware to operate. In fact, to set up a good barcode asset tracking system, all the business entity needs is barcodes, a barcode scanner and asset tracking software. 

Once the systems and tools are set up and in the right place, the process of  asset tracking with barcodes New Zealand can easily be broken down into 3 stages. First, the data is stored on a unique barcode which is printed and assigned to a specific asset or product. 

Second, the barcode is scanned using a scanner or mobile device (like a smart phone) which extracts data. Third, the date is sent to a computer in binary form, which is then decoded and stored in an asset-tracking software database.