Barcode asset management involves marking equipment and assets with barcodes that can be scanned by a special scanner and tracked in a computerized database. It is used in various industries, including supermarkets, police departments, and hospitals. Barcodes can also be used to track employee movements and inventory movement.
Businesses and other organizations sometimes mark their equipment, supplies, and other assets with stickers printed with barcodes. These barcodes usually consist of a series of lines that can be read by a special scanner. The stickers can then be used to inventory and track the marked assets. This process is called barcode asset management.
Barcode asset management is done using an interactive computerized database. The barcode asset management software works in conjunction with the barcode printer and scanner. Sometimes when a new good is shipped to a company it comes with a barcode already affixed. In this case, often all that is required to add the asset to the asset management database is to scan the sticker. In other cases, an employee will enter product information into the database and print a new barcode sticker to apply to the asset.
To track inventory movement, each scanner is typically assigned a code to represent its location. Each piece is scanned as it is moved to or from a different area. The last location where the resource was scanned is listed as the current location in the database.
Employees may also be assigned barcodes, which are often affixed to their employee identification cards. These cards can be scanned when receiving or returning company properties to inventory. This provides a more accurate record of the movements of each asset.
The small size and moderately low cost of most barcode stickers allow tracking of most company assets. Individual documents or files can be inventoried before filing to facilitate document retrieval. Larger physical assets, such as laptops and audio-visual equipment that are often shared between departments, can be found more quickly. Barcode stickers have become quite unobtrusive, so even digital assets such as CDs and DVDs can be marked without interfering with their use.
Many people have experimented with barcode asset management while shopping. This is fitting, because the barcode was originally developed for the supermarket industry. Each time an item is scanned, the database lists the price for the cash register and infers it from the store’s inventory. This has improved business productivity by making checkout faster and reducing the time stores spend evaluating and tracking items.
Barcode asset management has a number of applications across many industries. Police departments often use technology to track evidence. Each trial is labeled with a sticker and scanned each time it changes hands. The date and time the evidence is moved is automatically recorded when it is scanned, and the name of the person moving the evidence is often scanned from their identification card or manually entered into the system.
Hospitals often use asset management software to keep track of patient files. Hospital ID bracelets are also often barcoded. This helps ensure that the appropriate file is referenced with each patient. Mothers and newborns are given matching bracelets to prevent accidental changing of babies.
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