Understandably, many have become numb to terms like “mobile”, “mobility”, and “mobile technology.” The terms are used so frequently in basic functions of our lives that it is often too easy to disregard the need to evaluate and recognize the breadth of their impact, especially for tracking and managing assets. This is one area where the value of mobile technology should be understood- and appreciated.

Managing inventory and tracking assets manually has always consisted of a significant amount of labor and financial resource costs. Additionally, as with any manual process, inaccuracies are prevalent – the results of which are typically costly and detrimental.

Mobile computing and Auto ID technology have the power to eliminate all of these detriments for many industries by saving them time, improving accuracy, reducing loss, and boosting productivity.

There are a few important segments of data to review which can lend clarity to the way mobile technology has made an impact. You can get a visual view of this information with our new infographic, here.

Workplace Productivity and Overhead

It’s important to recognize the opportunities as well as the potential improvements for productivity and decreasing overhead that mobile technology brings to organizations.

  • Productivity would be boosted by an average of 36% if key enterprise applications were mobilized
  • 76% of employees believe they have increased productivity because of mobile capabilities
  • 58% of employees believe their operations would improve by utilizing mobile devices.

The Cost of Manual Data Management

Paperwork is the largest overhead expense in any organization, but the losses incurred are more significant when considering the errors made by human data entry.

  • It is estimated that data entry errors cost US businesses $18.2 billion annually.
  • Retailers and manufacturers each lose $2 million for every $1 billion in sales due to bad data management.

Manual data entry leaves a tremendous amount of opportunities for error that prove costly to an organization’s resources, financially as well as labor related.

  • Managers spend an average of 4 weeks a year searching for or waiting on misfiled, mislabeled, untracked, or “lost” paper information.
  • Electronic forms show an error rate of 0.4%, while paper forms are a 3.5% error rate.

The Effects of Auto ID Enabled Mobility

With the cost of manual data management, there is a growing interest in Auto ID technology and Auto ID enabled mobility. The RFID market’s worth jumped from $6.96 billion to $8.89 billion between 2012-2014, and it’s easy to see why. About 25% of the organizations utilizing the technology are Industrial, for which benefits are visible in a variety of functions.

Labor Costs:

$7.5% or more in warehouse applications

Up to 40% in regional distribution centers

  • 15-20% of labor costs are saved for restocking inventory.
  • An additional 3-4% is saved on revenue that would otherwise be lost due to out-of-stock products.
  • Auditing procedures are decreased by 93% when mobile devices are used.

Tracking and Maintenance Optimization:

RFID technology can optimize tracking and maintenance by 20% by automating applications for both warehousing and distribution.

Data Collection Costs:

Mobile devices can cut data collection costs by 74%, and cut time by 46%.

Overhead:

Implementing mobile asset management reduced overhead costs by 20%.

Accuracy of Inventory:

Physical and cycle counts that are performed with mobile asset tracking can achieve 98% accuracy for inventory levels.

These numbers illustrate that implementing mobile asset tracking is the logical decision for any organization; RFID technology saves time, improves accuracy, reduces loss, and improves employee productivity.

The only remaining questions are how the technology would be implemented and what effect it would have on your unique organization. You can find answers to these questions by browsing the A2B Tracking website’s Resource Center, where you will find a library of informative videos, infographics, webinars, articles, whitepapers, eBooks, and case studies, as well as our comprehensive blog.

Alternatively, you can send us a message to speak to an RFID expert who can review your needs and help you understand the technology’s potential impact for your unique functions and processes.  Go here to send us a message, or find information to call and email us directly.