How Do Big Offices Keep Track of Furniture | Challenges, Solutions

In this article, we examine how do big offices keep track of furniture, overcome tracking challenges, and implement intelligent solutions to streamline furniture management and enhance their efficiency.

Why is tracking furniture important?

It’s because tracking your furniture equipment in a large establishment keeps you updated about the current condition and ownership of your particular piece. Imagine you spend thousands of dollars on office furniture (which is frequently a high-value investment), and it is used by your employees daily, which means it will also experience daily wear and tear. To keep them in check, a tracking/inventory system is important.

Such a furniture inventory system helps you manage your furniture by keeping track of each piece and who has it, especially in multi-tenant workspaces with varied occupants. These systems are now a daily routine for big organizations that have usually run separate organizations’ general asset tracking practices.

How do big offices keep track of furniture?

To manage misplacement, damage, theft, and complex inventory of furniture items in a big area, organizations nowadays use asset management software that works with newer tracking technologies like Radio Frequency Identification, a.k.a. RFID, and barcodes. These technologies are now taken as a general method to manage assets for an organization.

1. General Asset Tracking

Both allow tracking data involving maintenance records, purchase dates, expected lifespans, the person allotted a particular piece, etc. This data can be accessed through a simple scan from a smartphone or handheld camera with scanning functions.

Barcodes are an inexpensive solution that is easily stickered to the furniture or any other equipment, while RFID tech is used with real tags that are physically attached to furniture or equipment. Special scanners with electromagnetic fields are used to automatically identify these tags. 

RFIDs come as active or passive; the active ones have a battery inside them and can be read from long distances. The passive ones do not have their power source and need to be read at close distances. Most offices use passive ones for bigger furniture, as they are easier to manage and cheaper as well. This is how do big offices keep track of furniture and other inventory items.

2. Impact of Hybrid Work

As COVID-19 impacted the entire world, it also changed how we used to work and the methods to manage organizational assets, especially furniture. Workstations and resources of an organization are less fixed and more dynamic. Because of this, the way how do big offices keep track of furniture and how office spaces are managed has also evolved.

Nowadays, offices compete with house environments in their design due to the rise in work-from-home and hybrid work models. Companies are now using smart office solutions like FM: Systems or Archibus; both are examples of integrated workplace management systems and offer online booking of office desk reservations, room booking, and general asset usage under the company’s umbrella.

These systems also use mobile apps, which can be used to physically check in and check out the assets, making tracking easier for the companies. Such systems are also paired with cloud platforms, which enable seamless and remote access to assets and services.

3. Space management and smart maintenance

Big offices for an organization are always interested in the total cost of occupancy, or TCO, which is why they put a lot of effort into space management of the premises. Software like Condeco, envoy, Robin, OfficeSpace Software, etc., helps companies to visualize their space and better manage it, which eventually helps them with their furniture and other asset management.

This also comes in handy when the company executes space assignments, work zoning, and work visualization, along with the furniture items it possesses. Software like UpKeep, Fiix, eMaint, etc., are examples of computerized maintenance management software, or CMMS, which help companies run a smooth maintenance regime for their furniture and other high-value equipment.

One of the biggest tasks in asset management relates to the furniture a company holds, as they are high-value items. Investing in high-quality furniture also impacts how much this company is going to spend on maintenance for the years to come. The complete office furniture series from Guddorfiss is designed to be as durable and functional as possible to lower maintenance costs in asset management.

The brand has always focused on blending aesthetics with ergonomics and has been evolving with the current work environment, with its furniture items targeted towards hybrid and remote work environments. Its electric standing desks, ergonomic office chairs, and workstation furniture with accessories are designed with top-tier premium materials with functionality and efficiency in focus.

Wrapping Up:

We examined here why tracking of furniture is important and how do big offices keep track of furniture in their vicinity. Furniture items from Guddorfiss are designed to be as durable as possible with premium materials and ergonomic designs to help companies better manage their furniture and reduce maintenance costs in the long run.