Equipment inventory always poses an issue--they are almost never 100% accurate. These hidden costs can take a toll on businesses. I can name a bunch but will just highlight a few. Businesses suffer $ loss in missing inventory and impact on production and most of the time ending up in a vicious cycle where they buy new equipment to be, again, sucked into this endless blackhole. 

An effective way to stop missing inventory is to make the person who uses the inventory responsible for it. A check in/check out process requires employee badge to check out an item and records the item's information plus the employee's information with a timestamp.

I was sent to support one of my colleagues in another site to implement this system to their warehouse wearable equipment inventory.

Highlights of the implementation:

• Gathered and inventoried all IWD inventory on a non business day to ensure inventory accuracy.
• Re-labed physical devices and updated records on inventory system.
• Setup numbered lockers for each hand held inventory.
• Setup check in/check out process that ties in employee badge information, check in/out time stamp, and inventory ID. (e.g. Physical workstations with RFID scanners)
• Reduced missing inventory as the checked out items have employee badge ID. Supervisors get involved when an inventory goes missing (not returned after a shift ends).
• Increased reported tickets for broken inventory so they can be repaired instead of being tossed and lost in an unknown corner.

Thumbnail Image by THAM YUAN YUAN from Pixabay