Keeping a tight hold on inventory control is a vital function in any organisation which is involved in manufacturing or distribution of products. This is best achieved through labelling and ensuring that they are coded which will make the task of inventory control of each asset easier to manage.
Tagging of assets ensures that products do not go missing in transit or storage, and also help prevent theft. The kind of tag will depend upon the asset, for example, immovable equipment can be tagged permanently by aluminium, vinyl and laminated polyester labels, whilst equipment of a temporary or items in transit can be easily tracked with plastic or paper based labels. Modern offices contain many expensive equipment items. The tagging of the equipment makes it easier to maintain them.
In retail environment, bar coding has helped the efficiency of supermarkets and others stores by keeping track of items which are in the store and efficiently calculates the number required in the future. We are of course all very familiar with the barcodes which are now part of just about every item in shops; these are read at the checkout by an optical reading machine and have transformed retailing throughout the world.