Not knowing where things are in your company is not only frustrating when you spend half a day searching for this one specific thing but also has a bad effect on the overall efficiency and, in the worst case, of the company’s revenue. In addition, having no insights into maintenance status of your things makes the whole problem even worse.
These “things” can be anything from towels with a unit price of just a few euros in current assets or large machines in fixed assets worth several million. That’s where our solutions for the Internet of Things come into play.
IoT-based asset management is a great way to gain insights into how and where assets are being used. Real-time information about the asset’s whereabouts, its maintenance status and overall condition is needed to ensure a trouble-free and durable use.
IoT sensors collect the needed data to gain insights into asset use. Clearly, wireless sensors have advantage over wired ones as they can be placed directly onto the assets, no matter if they have a fixed place or if they are moveable. However, battery-powered sensors are also not ideal as you wouldn’t want to have to change all these sensor batteries on your assets over and over again. And typically, batteries run out of power at the most inconvenient times. That’s why EnOcean’s wireless and battery-free sensors are ideally suited for IoT-based asset management. Stick them directly onto any sort of asset. They collect the raw data reliably and in real time, without any need for maintenance.
Not knowing where things are can be inconvenient at best. In hospitals, not having wheelchairs, beds and infusion pumps available at the right time can impede the required daily care. University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC) initiated the pilot project UFOund to tackle this problem in a user experience center.
First they tagged their equipment and connected it to a mesh network. Then they gave nurses and technical staff real-time information about the whereabouts of equipment. Better yet, they can ‘beep’ whatever they need with the push of a button.
