Inventory and stocks are as important to an organization as assets. Keeping track of them and monitoring their utilization is also a critical part of the business. Inventory items are tagged with inventory tags to centralize all required information at one place, a cloud platform.
An organization acquires hundreds of assets for their daily operations. For successful daily activities, tools and equipment are circulated from department to department and between different locations.
When there are many materials and items (assets and inventory) in an organization, there can be chances of misplacement, loss, or theft. To manage, monitor, and reduce such risks, administrators track their assets and inventories.
The best suitable way to track inventory is to label them with unique identity stickers called barcodes. The inventory sticker system greatly helps with all information associated with inventory. Thus, an inventory tag is the best practice to implement and manage all the goods and items required and acquired by the company.
Inventory tags are stickers placed on equipment to make the identification process easier. These tags contain codes or identification numbers allotted to a particular item, its details, location, and related information.
These labels are scanned through a scanner to read the linked information to improve the visibility and security of assets and inventory. This makes it easy to monitor all associated items in the organization.
What Are the Benefits of Using Inventory Tags?
The inventory sticker system enables supervising all information from the purchase of an asset or inventory until its disposal.
Inventory tags are very helpful for the business. Organizations are using them to manage their key operations all around the world, such as:
A. Inventory Tracking
The inventory sticker system allows the organization to locate where the inventory is at a given time. The function of inventory management puts in place a simple and less stressful cycling process of inventory, especially during audit times.
B. Inventory Counting
Inventory counting can be a hugely challenging task to be done manually, i.e., counted by hand. This turns out to be a total waste of time, money, and skillsets. Therefore, inventory tags are opted for and the technology is adopted for all inventory counting to ensure total accuracy while utilizing less time.
C. Asset Management
The warehouse inventory makes up a sizable percentage of the organization's movable and fixed assets. Therefore, their count should be done through asset management software to track the inventory accurately. All necessary information can be accessed without having to stress about uncontrollable inventory.
D. Improved Visibility
Inventory tags allow the organization end-to-end visibility. It provides real-time information on your current inventory to manage the related situation and supply chain as well. You can know accurately about the stock situation when it needs to be refilled, when to order purchases to avoid over or understocking, etc.
E. Seamless Reporting
The inventory management software provides seamless access to reports with the use of inventory tags in the system. The tags can be used to generate comprehensive reports before an audit occurs, thereby saving time and money.
Selection of Inventory Tags
The choice of inventory tags depends on the basis of the organization's requirements. As every entity's operational sector and industry are different, so are their preferences and priorities to tailor inventory tags to their requirements.
Here are some of the types of inventory tags to choose from along with their benefits:
1. Barcode Tags
Barcodes are 1-dimensional codes containing important information such as inventory identification, pricing, etc., readable through a barcode scanner.
Benefits:
- Accurate & Improved Inventory Management
- Fast and Efficient Operations
- Speed up the supply chain
- Increased Accountability
Why Are Barcodes Good?
Barcodes have a diverse range of inventory and assets to tag with low set-up costs.
2. QR Code Tags
QR codes are 2-dimensional codes with the capacity to be read through a mobile phone as well as with a scanner.
Benefits:
- Scanning possible by Smartphone
- Versatile
- Extremely Fast Scanning
- Good Fault Tolerance
- Stores a large amount of Information
- Used for anything and everything
Why Are QR Codes Good?
QR Codes are highly mobile in nature and can be used on any platform.
3. RFID Tags
RFID tags capture and read data through radio waves to scan dozens of tags at a single time.
Benefits:
- Read Multiple Tags at a Time
- Tags can be integrated with sensors and GPS technology
- Improved Asset Security through real-time Alerts and Alarms
- Time spent on Inventory Information is reduced
Why Are RFID Tags Good?
RFID tags are good for warehouse management and retail operations as they are less time-consuming to operate.
Conclusion
As it is known, inventory labeling is not an easy task. At the same time, it is critical to implement and streamline the inventory and asset tagging process for their efficient lifecycle management.
It is initially important to choose the type of tags and labels per the requirements of the organization and suitability to achieve the goals and objectives and the ability to manage workflow smoothly.
Inventory tags help an organization with reduced costs, improved ROI,
and mitigated risks. All this proves to be beneficial at the end of the financial year.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the purpose of tagging inventory?
Inventory constitutes a valuable business asset and they need to be tagged to make operations efficient and smooth.
What are the types of inventory?
- Raw-material
- Work-in-progress
- Finished goods
- Transit inventory
- Buffer inventory
- Anticipation inventory
- Decoupling inventory
- Cycle inventory
- MRO goods inventory
What is meant by inventory?
Inventory is an accounting term for goods or equipment used in various stages of sale, such as finished goods, work-in-progress, and raw materials.
What are inventory tags?
Inventory tags are adhesive labels affixed to the equipment and used to make the item's identification and processing easy.