Expert POV: The Hidden Cost of Lost Returnable Assets

The Hidden Cost of Returnable Asset Visibility Gaps

Returnable assets such as containers, cylinders and specialized equipment can move through factories, warehouses, logistics providers and customer locations before eventually making their way back. While most organizations already have some form of tracking in place, disconnected systems and processes can create visibility gaps at every handoff.

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In this episode of our Expert POV series, Sebastian Hildenbeutel, Senior Solution Consultant at Eng IndX, explains why the challenge extends far beyond simply losing an asset. When organizations can no longer fully trust their asset data, the impact can include unnecessary replacement purchases, excess safety stock, time-consuming manual searches, poor asset utilization, customer service challenges and higher operating costs.

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Using the example of a global industrial gases company, Sebastian shows how IndX implemented an SAP-based Track & Trace solution that gave each returnable asset a serialized digital identity and captured information as assets were scanned throughout their journey. Instead of relying on disconnected information across different systems, the approach created a single source of truth for returnable asset visibility. The result was improved visibility for employees, better customer communication, more standardized product data management across the supply chain and reduced operating costs.

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The episode also introduces the Returnable Asset ROI Calculator, which helps organizations estimate potential savings based on their own environment, as well as the Returnable Asset Visibility Assessment for identifying visibility gaps, estimating business impact and prioritizing improvement opportunities.