History Of Asset Management:

Asset identification has always been a major headache for corporations, especially during audit time, when the auditor would like to physically verify the presence of an asset. Usually, in the older days, asset numbers were either stenciled on the asset or painted on it, large assets like plant equipment had bolt-on steel plate type tags (“boilerplate tags”) on them, which contained details of when the asset was manufactured.

Since the assets typically had long lives, they almost outlived the life of the tag. This posed a problem as misidentification, duplicate asset counting, and asset “vanishing” took place. Asset identification and tracking therefore is a major issue, especially between a company’s management and its independent auditors. The management may be genuinely overwhelmed by the number, type, and sheer numbers of the various assets under its control, but the auditors always look at these matters suspiciously, especially after earlier debacles like Enron, they can never be too sure.

Present Situation Of Asset Management:

Presently many assets are still tagged by labels, steel plates, or have numbers painted onto them but the confusion prevails. In the recent past many progressive companies have some sort of automatic identification systems like bar codes in place, but they may not cover all assets, or the paste-on tags themselves get lost, dirty, or otherwise damaged.

They cannot be read in most of these cases, leaving behind open questions from auditors and red-faced management trying to explain, convince, and cajole the auditors into not mentioning these slip-ups in the annual reports. The total value of these assets is a huge figure on the balance sheets. Even if the present value of the assets is not shown to be high (because of depreciation) the actual replacement cost of these assets is substantial. It is therefore an essential task of all company management to have a better asset identification and tracking system in place.

RFID Asset Management:

Asset identification has always been a major headache for corporations, especially during audit time, when the auditor would like to physically verify the presence of an asset. Usually, in the older days, asset numbers were either stenciled on the asset or painted on it, large assets like plant equipment had bolt-on steel plate type tags (“boilerplate tags”) on them, which contained details of when the asset was manufactured. Since the assets typically had long lives, they almost outlived the life of the tag. This posed a problem as misidentification, duplicate asset counting, and asset “vanishing” took place. Asset identification and tracking therefore is a major issue, especially between a company’s management and its independent auditors. The management may be genuinely overwhelmed by the number, type, and sheer numbers of the various assets under its control, but the auditors always look at these matters suspiciously, especially after earlier debacles like Enron, they can never be too sure.

Key Benefits

• Increased Efficiency: Automated data capture and reduced manual processes.
• Improved Accuracy: Minimizes human errors and provides real-time updates.
• Enhanced Visibility: Tracks assets in real-time across the facility.
• Better Security: Prevents theft and unauthorized movement of assets.

How it Works

• RFID Tag Installation: Each asset is equipped with an RFID tag containing a globally unique identifier (ID).
• Handheld RFID Readers: Used for quick, manual scanning of RFID tags on assets.
• Fixed RFID Readers: Installed at strategic points within the facility, such as entry/exit points or storage areas.
• Equipped with circular polarized antennas to ensure tag identification from multiple angles.
• Tag Scanning: Handheld readers allow for fast reading of tags during inventory checks or asset movements.
• Fixed readers continuously scan tags as assets move through monitored areas.

RFID Complete Solution of Asset Management:

RFID tags need not be physically present only on the exterior of an asset but, they can be mounted safely in a place where they may not be visible easily to the eye but are nonetheless, easily visible to an RFID reader. Therefore a company can easily tag all its assets with RFID tags.

The tags need not always be pasted on, they can be located in a place from which they may not easily get damaged Since a physical line of sight is not required, even in case of dirtying, they are still visible to the reader. For tagging assets in a manufacturing plant, industrial-grade tags are available. Typically they can be attached to metal surfaces without problems If required, they also come with safety certifications allowing them to be used in hazardous areas. The system works like this. An asset is tagged at the time when it is dues for its next physical verification. The tag need not be the same for each asset. One can have different types of tags depending on the physical nature of the asset, its mobility, its replacement value, and other such factors. For example, a steel reactor that is fixed at one location would have a different type of tag than a laptop, which is a mobile asset. Also the vulnerability of the laptop to theft or malicious “vanishing” may be more than that of the steel reactor, even though its replacement cost is low. After analyzing these different classes of assets, one can come up with a tag-type list for each asset. After this is done, the tags are physically fixed in locations on the assets which are not necessarily visible to the naked eye but are nevertheless visible to an RFID reader. The tag numbers are unique and each tag number corresponds to a unique asset in the company’s asset register or asset database, which may be a database in its ERP system. The unique ID number of the RFID tag thus points to the corresponding asset in the database. An external independent auditor can now easily roam about the plants and offices, armed with an RFID reader to query each asset.

This system gives a remarkable amount of transparency to, what has been to date, a pretty much opaque system. This increases the confidence of auditors in the company’s management manifold and leads to lesser legal hassles of compliance.

Customized Software:

Flow Chart:

1. Desktop RFID Reader is used to initialize the data of the RFID Tags and associate the device information and Tags information 2. Fixed RFID reader is settled in the computer room and warehouse entry/exit. It complements the monitoring of loading and unloading, inventory, assets, and use location. It would alarm once the actual location and database location do not correspond. 3. Handheld RFID reader is used for daily asset inventory and management of asset position movement. It realizes the asset location tracking.

Future Trends:

1. It may be possible for the government or a similar authority to pass a law saying that all assets declared by a publicly held corporation on its books should be tagged with a read-on.
2. With the Enron & Worldcom corporate scandals still fresh in people’s minds, this RFID asset tagging could be a solution suggested by external independent auditors.
3. Standardization of asset number tags is a possibility, therefore all “asset” tags will follow a certain standard both in physical aspects as well in their internal data structure.