Providing For Life-cycle Management in Your Retail Assets

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Managing your retail assets means you need to account for all stages of your asset life cycle. In retail, you rely on your assets to help you source, stock and sell your products. Without assets like shelving, cash registers, and inventory software, you wouldn’t be capable of running your store.

Here are some of the basic steps in life-cycle management for your retail assets.

Know How to Acquire Retail Assets

What is your process for acquiring assets? When will you know it’s time to replace your cash registers? How will you know when certain displays need to be changed out?

Once you know when you need to replace or acquire new assets, you’ll also need to figure out how you will source them. Do you have vendors who can help you with all of your assets? Are there some vendors who you need to work with for specialized equipment? Having a plan for working with vendors and hiring one person or a department for vendor management can make it so your purchasing goes smoother.

Identify How Long You Expect Assets to Last

Once you have your assets, how long do they need to last? If your assets are dying before their expected life-cycle is up, you’ll know that something is amiss. You can then investigate potential causes and look to see what’s happening.

Outlining your expected asset life-cycle will also help you figure out what type of care you need to take part in, as well as how often you should be maintaining it. You can also outline depreciation for each asset and take better care of your retail finances.

Locate Where Assets Will be Stored

Once you have your assets, where will you be storing them? What types of storage solutions do you need for them? Asset storage solutions are an important part of doing inventory for both your products and your retail assets.

What sorts of things do you need to use your assets for? Where will your asset be used most often? These answers will help you figure out where you need to store your items. Put it close to where it’ll be used, but not too far in the way.

Create an Asset Maintenance Schedule

After you know where your assets will be stored, you’ll need a system for maintaining them. Create a schedule for each of your assets according to how many tune-ups and repairs they need.

Most assets won’t need to go through maintenance more often than once a month. Others might need a check-up every week. Make it a part of your usage schedule. Assign people to check-ups as part of their work schedule, and you’ll have a system in place should anything go wrong.

Identify Who Will Have Access to Which Assets

Knowing who will have access to your assets will also give you an idea of how often they’ll be used. Determining a usage schedule is also helpful in figuring out how much maintenance is necessary, and what types of breakages it might be subject to. Usage amounts will also help you determine how long to expect your assets to keep functioning.

Outline a Process for Retiring Assets

No matter how well you take care of your assets, there will come a time when you have to retire them. Whether it be because the technology is outdated or because they’ve been used too much, you need a system to figure out when it’s time to upgrade. Then, you’ll start the life-cycle all over again with another asset.

By:

Mel Van De Graaff

Mel creates research driven content for companies in the health and wellness field, and specializes in creating action driven blog posts for Mental Health and Self Help topics as well as creating white papers and case studies.

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