Items of high value need additional security measures. Items may be taken for personal use or sold by employees, customers, or others. Maintaining the property record is the first necessity of any security system in order to establish the fact that an item did exist. Assigning a custodian so that someone is responsible to regularly check on its existence is the second necessity. An item that is found may be traced back to its custodian. Similarly, any item that cannot be found will have an audit trail back to the last assigned custodian.
In addition to this, tagging and identification reduce the probability of misuse. However, procedures for periodic inventories, requirements for removal from the premises, donation, and destruction of no longer needed items must be included in the asset accounting manual.
Management must maintain an attitude of protection of the company's assets. An attitude that "we spend too much time" on inventories leads to poor security procedures. The axiom in an audit process of "assume everyone is honest, but do not allow anyone to be otherwise" should be followed. Procedures should be such that if expensive equipment is removed, it will be missed within a reasonable time, and some record will exist as to who had access during that period.
Remember also that loss is not always due to theft; it may occur in the normal course of activities. A library book misfiled on the shelf will only be found by accident in the future. A defibrillator removed from an ambulance and left at an accident scene will never be found if it is not missed immediately. Typically, in such a rescue vehicle, an inventory is taken at the beginning of each shift. The new crew verifies that all equipment is present, restocks any disposable items, and enters that information in the record. Such procedures should be established on some basis with all expensive convertible assets. In a manufacturing plant, expensive tools for milling equipment that are used sporadically should be controlled individually. The tools should be locked in a special cabinet with a record listing who removed them and when they were replaced. Items that are used every day in the production process would not require such control because they would be missed immediately.
Procedures for security should, where possible, be integrated with the normal functions of those using the items. In the example of the inventory at the beginning of a new emergency ambulance crew shift, it is not just for equipment security. The crew needs to ensure that they are adequately stocked and that all equipment is in working order. The start-up of an assembly line can provide a similar status report. The review of each equipment item, as to its proper condition before starting the line, can be constructed to provide a positive inventory report as well as an assessment of future maintenance requirements. During pre-flight checks, the crew of an airliner notes any missing items or minor maintenance deficiencies. Missing items or serious maintenance deficiencies require grounding of the aircraft.
Surplus and/or obsolete equipment should be identified quickly and normal procedures for disposing of it followed. Equipment that is no longer used can get lost in the process very quickly. The handling of such a surplus can telegraph management's concern over asset management to the entire organization. If material is quickly identified as surplus, placed in use elsewhere, or disposed of according to written procedures, it avoids the breeding of bad attitudes. If the opposite occurs and surplus property is just in the way until it disappears, employees grow indifferent to company property.