Tool Tracking App Helps Agricultural Organizations Tighten Budget During Slowdown

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A tool tracking app can make a measurable difference in the ability of agricultural organizations to manage and extend the lifespan of their tools and other fixed assets.

COVID-19 and the Agriculture Industry

Our global pandemic has had varied effects on the agriculture industry. While it was labeled an essential business, a designation that gave companies the authorization to continue operations as usual, farmers have faced significant challenges over the last few months as they’ve worked to adapt to changes in demand, a slew of restrictions and increased sanitation efforts. In a March 31 article for industry publication World-Grain.com (“COVID-19 impacts agriculture from farm to fork”), writers Susan Reidy, Chris Lyddon and David McKee explain how home confinement led to increased demand for flour from millers around the world. “Major agribusinesses vowed to keep facilities operating while enacting stricter hygiene and sanitary measures,” the writers say. “Equipment and service providers, even those in some of the hardest-hit areas of the world, were maintaining operations as best they could with reduced staff. Across the board, the agriculture industry is concerned about logistic issues, whether it’s moving raw materials across closed borders or having enough healthy employees to keep facilities operational and products moving.”

To keep up with increased sanitation efforts and increased demand at a time when staff may already be reduced, agricultural organizations are likely taking a hard look at their operations across the board and considering ways they can be more financially responsible. One particularly “low-hanging fruit,” so to speak, may be to identify areas of waste. A tool tracking app can help these companies do just that.

How Tool Tracking Works

Any organization that maintains a large inventory of tools and equipment is vulnerable to theft and/or loss. Without a means to track those fixed assets, these investments are as good as gone – but often not without hours of frustrating legwork to try to locate them. A tool tracking app assigns a unique identifier to each tool, piece of equipment or other fixed asset. Users can link those identifiers to a platform that effectively stores the entire lifecycle of each of those items, which can be accessed with a simple barcode scan. Ideally, that platform is accessible via a mobile app, so users have access to that information 24 hours a day from wherever they happen to be, whether it’s the field, the office or anywhere in between.

The Benefits

Maintenance is a key area in which agricultural companies can waste their hard-earned dollars. Tracking maintenance schedules and histories through a manual system is difficult to keep up with and invites oversight and errors. With a tool tracking app, users can set up custom reminders so they never miss routine maintenance again. In the long run, preventive maintenance prolongs the lifespan of their investment in tools and equipment.

Planning also becomes easier with a tool tracking app, as companies can examine tool use across the board at their respective job sites and determine their needs based on real-time facts, not guesswork. Companies may also conduct regular audits so they keep tabs on their inventory of tools and equipment and the condition of those items. This kind of efficiency helps agricultural organizations avoid buying tools they already have, or paying shipping or transportation costs when those tools and equipment may already have been available on-site or within closer proximity.

By:

Courtney Roush

Courtney Roush is a freelance writer, editor, and communications strategist with 25 years of experience. Her favorite discipline is crisis communications – and it’s a highly relevant one in our present times.

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