Real Cost Of Lost Company Equipment

The real costs of lost equipment and what a company can do about it.
by Eric Gough

Almost everyone knows how much it hurts to lose something important, especially costly equipment. Losing equipment is more than just a hassle since it is essential for the smooth operation of your organization. You should safeguard your equipment to prevent incurring unnecessary costs and interruptions.

Asset Tracking

As a consequence, asset tracking is now the key to managing your assets successfully. All kinds of organizations are now leveraging real-time location systems to avoid losing assets.

Thefts are a small subset of lost assets as they are just one of the many causes. However, pilfering alone costs a staggering $50 billion each year in the US.

All kinds of things go missing, including laptops and computer equipment. It may be hard to believe but even cumbersome equipment like forklifts and vehicles get stolen in large amounts each year.

The Cost of Downtime

Besides theft, even something as innocent sounding as misplacement can lead to tremendous losses. That’s because misplaced tools and equipment have the potential to stop entire production lines and bring operations to a grinding halt. Workers have to spend an inordinate amount of time searching for lost equipment. This is precious time that should have been spent on more useful endeavors. The cost of downtime can be significant. Misplacement can lead to lower productivity and increased stress. This can hamper your ability to deliver on time. For instance, sales personnel often have to spend a lot of time searching for barcodes of sold items so that they can be shipped.

Revenue losses due to unplanned downtimes can run into billions of dollars. According to Aberdeen Research, downtime cost on average $250,000.

How Misplaced Equipment Costs Money

Logistics operations can suffer from lost equipment since scanners and barcode readers are necessary for carrying out basic supply chain operations. However, since these tools are small, they are also very easy to misplace. Instead of working on better productivity and delivering to your customers on time, workers are sent scrambling to hunt for misplaced equipment. This can seriously hamper efficiency and productivity. There surely has to be a solution for equipment that is small and easy to lose.

The Solution

So how do you curb the problem of lost equipment? By wearing it, of course! Wearable scanners and barcode readers are now a reality. Instead of rummaging for misplaced scanners, your workers just have to lift their hand to use the reader embedded in the gloves they are wearing. This is much faster since the barcode readers and scanners are always within reach. Your workers don’t have to waste any time walking towards the equipment and back to the place of operations.

There is something decidedly futuristic about raising a hi-fi glove and ‘zapping’ the target with it. This is what your workers will be doing with wearable technology. Such technology may be innovative but it will soon become the norm in coming years due to the potential that wearable technology has for saving time and costs. This may not turn your workers into superheroes but they may become super productive.

MIDCOM specializes in barcode scanning solutions. Talk to one of our Specialists about wearable barcode scanners that can help prevent equipment loss. Call now (800) 643-2664.