The query “the place is it?” prices logistics and fleet operations billions of {dollars} yearly. A trailer that ought to be on the depot is someplace within the yard. Gear scheduled for deployment sits idle on the unsuitable location. Fleet automobiles are lacking upkeep home windows as a result of no one is aware of their precise standing or the place they’ve been.
In actual fact, unplanned downtime prices industrial producers an estimated $50 billion yearly, with logistics operations dealing with related stress as they handle more and more complicated fleets throughout a number of transportation modes.
Unified asset visibility transforms these operational challenges into aggressive benefits by connecting scattered information into actionable intelligence that drives higher selections, reduces waste, and ensures belongings work the place and after they’re wanted most.
Key takeaways
- Asset visibility gaps create cascading prices past search time. Organizations lose productiveness via idle tools, administrative overhead consuming 1.8 hours every day, and customer support failures that injury income
- Trendy platforms ship interconnected capabilities together with real-time location monitoring, predictive upkeep, cell accessibility, and unified information that eliminates spreadsheet-based silos
- Organizations obtain measurable transformation, as demonstrated by Maritime Developments’ 50% discount in administrative work and eight+ hours saved per technician weekly throughout 300+ globally distributed belongings
What occurs whenever you lose observe of your belongings
Organizations working with out complete real-time monitoring throughout their logistics operations face quantifiable prices that compound throughout each operational metric.
Finish-to-end provide chain visibility via real-time asset monitoring can cut back logistics prices by as much as 15% whereas enhancing buyer satisfaction via extra dependable supply home windows, based on McKinsey.
The inverse is equally true. Sustaining blind spots drives prices larger.
Gear sitting idle or misallocated generates zero return whereas consuming capital, insurance coverage premiums, and space for storing. Organizations regularly uncover they’re renting or buying substitute tools whereas an identical belongings sit unused elsewhere.
Administrative overhead drains sources as groups spend hours trying to find tools and reconciling conflicting data. Data employees waste 1.8 hours every single day trying to find info that ought to have been documented and accessible, based on McKinsey.
In the meantime, customer support failures pushed by asset visibility gaps undermine long-term income and aggressive place. Late deliveries, service disruptions, and unreliable efficiency injury buyer relationships in ways in which prolong past particular person transaction prices.
Asset visibility maturity evaluation: Calculate your hidden prices
Most logistics operations consider they’ve “adequate” visibility—till they measure what these blind spots price. Take the evaluation to establish gaps in your present method and see the place unified asset visibility may ship measurable ROI.
Be aware that each logistics operation faces distinctive challenges based mostly on business, scale, geography, and operational maturity. The statistics and value estimates under symbolize business averages and benchmark information from a number of sources. Your precise prices and potential financial savings might range considerably based mostly in your particular scenario. Use this evaluation as a basic framework to establish areas for deeper investigation inside your personal operations.
Fee every assertion on a scale of 0-2:
0 = By no means/Not true
1 = Typically/Partially true
2 = Typically/Fully true
Rating your outcomes
0-8 Factors: Stable basis
You’ve gotten robust visibility practices in place. Deal with optimization alternatives like predictive upkeep or AI-powered analytics to extract incremental positive aspects. Based on business analysis, even organizations with mature methods can obtain 15-25% reductions in logistics prices via focused enhancements.
9-16 Factors: Important alternative
Your present method has notable gaps that create hidden prices. Corporations at this stage sometimes see 15% decrease logistics prices and 35% higher stock administration after implementing unified asset visibility platforms. Business information reveals solely 43% of organizations have stable visibility into tier 1 provider efficiency. You’re possible among the many majority that would profit from higher methods.
17-24 Factors: Vital gaps
Asset visibility blind spots are considerably impacting your operations. Analysis signifies provide chain disruptions price firms roughly 8% of annual income, and your handbook processes are possible contributing to this determine. Trendy platforms can cut back these prices whereas enhancing service ranges by as much as 65%.
25-32 Factors: Pressing want
Your reliance on handbook monitoring creates severe operational threat. With U.S. enterprise logistics prices reaching $2.3 trillion (8.7% of GDP), even small effectivity enhancements ship substantial returns. Main firms report 25-35% reductions in stock prices and as much as $8 in ROI for each greenback invested in AI-powered visibility options.
The actual prices of poor asset visibility
If you happen to scored above 9, contemplate these prices:
- Logistics inefficiency: Corporations implementing AI-powered route optimization report 10-15% reductions in gas and dwell time, whereas total logistics prices can drop by 15-25% with correct visibility methods
Even stopping a single emergency restore, eliminating one delayed deployment per 30 days, or lowering handbook monitoring time by a number of hours per week can justify funding in fashionable asset visibility platforms.
The platform options that matter most for asset visibility in logistics
When evaluating asset visibility options, prioritize capabilities that ship measurable operational enhancements fairly than focusing solely on function lists. Efficient visibility methods create worth via how capabilities work collectively fairly than via remoted options.
Entry your information anyplace with mobile-first design
Subject groups entry full asset info and log updates from anyplace—places of work, yards, warehouses, or distant job websites. Work continues with out interruption even when community connectivity drops, with updates synchronizing robotically when connections restore.
For instance, a technician inspecting trailers in a far nook of the yard can doc points instantly, even with out cell service. Once they return to the workplace, all inspection information syncs robotically, triggering work orders for any issues discovered. Operations by no means await connectivity to carry out important duties.
Preserve one supply of reality with centralized asset registry
Each asset has complete data, together with specs, configurations, upkeep histories, guarantee info, contracts, and components inventories, saved in a single location. Model management issues and information inconsistencies disappear.
When a dispatcher must deploy a particular asset, they see present location, upkeep standing, and availability immediately fairly than calling three completely different folks to piece collectively info. Higher selections and seamless coordination observe when everybody accesses the identical information.
Discover tools immediately with interactive location mapping
Visible maps with 2D floorplan integration pinpoint actual asset areas inside services or yards. As an alternative of strolling the complete north yard to seek out one particular trailer, operations groups click on a map and navigate on to the asset’s exact location. Search time drops from half-hour to 30 seconds.
For big operations managing a whole lot of belongings throughout a number of areas, this spatial intelligence transforms deployment planning from guesswork into precision.
Leverage current methods with clean integrations
Open APIs and modular design join asset visibility platforms with ERP methods, HR platforms, telematics methods, and IoT sensors. When a upkeep work order closes within the asset system, it robotically updates stock ranges within the ERP and triggers components reordering if inventory falls under thresholds.
Information flows seamlessly throughout platforms with out duplicate entry, and current know-how investments improve fairly than get changed by new methods. Vendor lock-in turns into a non-issue.
Scale as your operations develop
Cloud-based structure maintains constant efficiency whether or not managing 300 belongings or tens of hundreds. Organizations begin with one location and develop throughout areas with out efficiency degradation or system slowdowns.
The computational energy and storage capability scale robotically, eliminating the necessity for complicated on-premises infrastructure or capability planning workout routines each time operations develop.
Defend your information with enterprise-grade safety
Position-based entry controls, audit logging, information encryption, and redundant architectures forestall unauthorized entry whereas sustaining uptime. A upkeep supervisor sees asset histories and work orders however can’t entry monetary information.
Executives view price analytics however can’t modify technical specs. Each motion creates an audit path, and information stays encrypted each in transit and at relaxation.
Eptura in motion: How MDL saved 8+ hours per technician each week
Maritime Developments (MDL), managing complicated offshore operations throughout international areas, wanted to modernize how they tracked and maintained their important belongings. Asset information was scattered throughout spreadsheets, emails, and phrase paperwork—or relied totally on staff members’ reminiscences. MDL lacked the centralized visibility wanted to handle their rising fleet successfully and guarantee constant upkeep requirements.
The offshore companies firm confronted vital operational challenges. Technicians spent hours manually logging upkeep information after finishing tasks offshore, creating delays between work completion and actionable reporting.
MDL applied Eptura Asset to create a unified digital system for asset administration and upkeep workflows.
The corporate digitized preventive upkeep processes, making a centralized repository the place anybody may verify the standing, situation, and historical past of every asset. They enabled cell upkeep logging so offshore technicians may doc work in actual time fairly than hours later.
The system now tracks 300+ belongings with 1,000+ work orders managed month-to-month, offering full visibility throughout MDL’s international operations.
After implementation, MDL achieved:
- 50% discount in administrative work, releasing technicians to deal with high-value technical duties
- 8+ hours saved per technician per week via automated upkeep logging and centralized information entry
- Decreased upkeep prices via higher planning and earlier downside detection
- Smoother workflows with fewer disruptions as groups entry full info in actual time
- Higher visibility of asset efficiency enabling data-driven operational selections
The transformation enabled MDL to handle their complicated, globally distributed belongings with constant requirements and real-time reporting, supporting dependable offshore operations whereas controlling prices.
Find out how they digitized upkeep workflows and achieved measurable ROI within the full MDL success story.
Regularly requested questions
By Jonathan Davis
As a content material creator at Eptura, Jonathan Davis covers asset administration, upkeep software program, and SaaS options, delivering thought management with actionable insights throughout industries resembling fleet, manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality. Jonathan’s writing focuses on subjects to assist enterprises optimize their operations, together with constructing lifecycle administration, digital twins, BIM for facility administration, and preventive and predictive upkeep methods. With a grasp’s diploma in journalism and a various background that features writing textbooks, enhancing online game dialogue, and instructing English as a overseas language, Jonathan brings a flexible perspective to his content material creation.
