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Asset Tracking Case Study

Growing Oak Environmental Eliminates Errors, Increases Productivity With Wasp MobileAsset

Calgary-based Oak Environmental is an environmental remediation company that rents expensive assets to environment consultants. Oak Environmental offers both short and long-term leasing, serving as a one-stop shop for those looking for environmental remediation services in the Alberta, Canada area. Assets include gas detection equipment, water quality devices, and soil and air sampling equipment.

Oak Environmental has been renting environmental assets for over 20 years but has witnessed a large growth spurt in the past six years, as the amount of equipment being rented jumped several hundred percent. Historically, Oak Environmental tracked these items that went back and forth between the warehouse and renters by hand. As the amount of assets being tracked grew in such a short period of time, tracking these items became too difficult.

“Tracking the incoming and outgoing assets by hand resulted in an unacceptable error rate,” noted Wesley Hutchen, operations manager of Oak Environmental. “With over 150 assets in and out of our doors each day, tracking them manually proved to be a money vacuum, and I was beyond frustrated with the error rate and time spent on a failing system.”

A New Frontier

Wesley Hutchen has been the operations manager at Oak Environmental for several years. In that time, he saw the company grow exponentially but experienced firsthand the primitive tracking process. Hutchen knew that it had reached a point where the company was losing too much money and wasting far too much time, so he began researching automated systems for tracking the rented equipment.

After conducting an internet search, Hutchen came across Wasp Barcode Technologies’ MobileAsset. After reviewing the software’s features, he decided MobileAsset had many of the features that he needed, and initiated a free 30-day trial. “I was so pleased with the software after a few weeks of use that we decided to use the program full-time,” stated Hutchen. “We also purchased a Wasp scanner, two Wasp printers, and one Wasp handheld computer to help optimize the program even further.”

“I opted to train myself and utilized Wasp’s web tutorials which led me through various procedures. It was simple, easy to understand, and I was confidently using the software in no time,” explained Hutchen. “There are now 5 employees who use the program daily and teaching them how to use it was painless.”

Oak Environmental has been using Wasp MobileAsset for a little over three months. In those three months, the company achieved dramatic results. The amount of time spent tracking down paperwork and equipment has been reduced dramatically. “Since deploying Wasp MobileAsset, we have significantly reduced paperwork. We no longer have an overwhelming amount of spreadsheets to sift through,” explained Hutchen.

Also, Oak Environmental’s error rate is now less than 2%, a substantial reduction from just three months ago. “The frustration and daily stress that occurred from manually tracking assets has been eliminated. I no longer have to worry about losing items and ultimately losing money,” noted Hutchen. “I now know where our equipment is at a glance.”

Additionally, Oak Environmental is now saving money every month that was once spent to track down lost assets. In addition, the company has reduced monthly labor costs that were once associated with manually tracking assets.

“We are beyond thrilled with the Wasp MobileAsset solution and the instant ROI we have received,” stated Hutchen. “We even have plans to purchase another Wasp scanner and Wasp InventoryControl to help us tackle the inventory side of our business. We look forward to having continued success with Wasp Barcode Technologies solutions.”

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