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According to industry research firm Aberdeen Group, mobile asset management is the basic corporate activity of managing the availability and serviceability of assets used to move, store, secure, protect and control inventory within the supply chain.

Mobile assets are defined as any number of returnable, reusable containers that are used to transport raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods through the supply chain. These logistics assets are typically of high-value, have high-value contents or have a strategic importance attached to them. These assets include beer kegs, intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) used in the food and chemical industries, racks for glass and automotive industries, and unit load devices (ULDs) used in the airline industry. Mobile assets can also include rolling cages, collapsible aluminum containers for raw materials, or portable equipment such as surgical instruments and other medical devices in hospitals.

These assets are often in the hands of other entities (suppliers, customers, logistics providers, carriers, etc.) and out of sight and control of the owning entity, which is a great difficulty. Mobile assets usually represent a significant capital expense for companies and their management and maintenance is resource-intensive. According to the Aberdeen Group’s RFID-Enabled Logistics Asset Management report, the average respondent of their survey spends 4% of annual revenue on logistics assets, whereas almost one-fifth of respondents spend more than 10%. The annual costs include the replacement of lost or damaged containers.

Different methods exist to track and manage mobile assets. Today, most companies use labor-intensive manual processes to track assets from manufacturers to distributors and back again. This results in higher supply chain costs and processes that are less reliable due to natural human error. Specific identification of the container’s origin and destination is virtually impossible under this method. Companies are beginning to look for a combination of technology and services to tackle issues with managing assets. The company that coined the term mobile asset management within the supply chain is TrenStar .



COMPONENTS OF MOBILE ASSET MANAGEMENT


Mobile asset management solutions can include one or more of these parts:

  • Outsourced Mobile Asset Management – Mobile asset management providers take the lead role in managing the asset operation within the supply chain, directing the activities of a client’s third party logistics company as needed and ensuring the proper services are performed on the asset (handling, cleaning, maintenance, repair). These providers also study the business processes within the supply chain and assists in optimizing each process to ensure that the supply chain is streamlined and more efficient – this way clients can focus on their core business and provide higher levels of service to their customers.


  • Asset Tracking Technology – More sophisticated mobile asset management companies use the most advanced means of tracking assets available today – Radio Frequency Identification – which has proven to be, in many cases, consistently perfect or near-perfect when scanning assets and their contents. RFID automatically captures data on each individual container and can indicate container contents without ever having to open the container. This helps companies with product quality, security and status issues. Mobile asset managers should provide companies with robust software applications that collect, maintain, track and analyze the data and provide customized reporting of the location, status, and audit and maintenance history of each asset. Combined with RFID this asset tracking and management software companies can significantly improve the visibility and performance of their supply chains. Some mobile asset management companies offer a hosted solution that gives clients the benefits of RFID without the burden of managing the technology themselves.


  • Flexible Pricing Options – Mobile asset management providers typically offer flexible financing options, including pay-per-use, subscription or leasing models. Each financing option provides a predictable monthly asset-related expense with greatly reduced capital requirements.




BENEFITS OF MOBILE ASSET MANAGEMENT


The major benefits of mobile asset management include:

  • Improve visibility of assets in the supply chain

  • Meet compliance mandates of customers

  • Improve asset tracking and inventory control across multiple facilities

  • Reduce loss or damage of goods while in transit

  • Streamline business processes having to do with assets

  • Reduced labor cost and human error with automatic asset tracking technology




GETTING STARTED WITH MOBILE ASSET MANAGEMENT


Aberdeen Group also recommends how to get started with mobile asset management:

  • Consider the impact of existing asset management processes – if managing large container fleets is not your company’s core competency, consider outsourcing.


  • Quantify your existing asset management operation – consider container life span, business processes surrounding your assets and overall loss rate.


  • Build a process and technology game plan – including an internal process realignment plan and a search for an external solution provider that may complement that realignment. Decide whether to continue to do in-house or to outsource mobile asset management.



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