Fixed assets do not always act like their name -- they are not fixed! Instead, smaller capital items may be moved around a facility with some regularity, making it extremely difficult to locate them when needed. To resolve this problem, use a radio frequency identification (RFID) system. This requires the purchase of battery-powered RFID tags that are affixed to each asset, and which have enough enough battery life to send a signal every 30 seconds for about five years. The signals are received by RFID readers that pass along this information to a central database for user viewing on a facility map, and which determines asset positioning based on the relative signal strength of the signals received by the various RFID readers.
Using an RFID tracking system may reduce the need for extra assets that might otherwise have been kept in reserve in case similar assets could not be located. Thus, RFID could potentially reduce the total asset investment. Further, it eliminates the time formerly spent searching for missing equipment, allows for rapid asset counts, eliminates instances of equipment hoarding, and tells the maintenance staff where to find equipment that is scheduled for maintenance.
An additional benefit of an RFID tracking system is its ability to provide hard evidence to an insurance company that an asset has actually been stolen. To do so, have the RFID tracking system record an out-of-bounds alert when an asset is moved off the company premises, and then use the time and date stamp on this alert to access the appropriate video footage from security cameras to document the theft.
This application is hardly necessary for truly "fixed" assets, since a transmitter tag is not needed to send a multitude of signals that the asset has not budged in the past five years. Consequently, only afix RFID tags to those fixed assets for which there is actually some likelihood of movement.
Who sells RFID systems for asset tracking? Try AeroScout or Radianse, Inc.
A variation on RFID is the use of ultrasound signals, which cannot penetrate room walls, and so does not yield false-location signals. This solution is provided by Sonitor Technologies.