Barcode tracking
Barcode tracking uses printed machine-readable codes on physical items so that scanning a label, rather than typing an identifier, records what happened to which item.
Barcode tracking uses printed machine-readable codes on physical items so that scanning a label, rather than typing an identifier, records what happened to which item.
← Equipment management glossary
Also called: barcode asset tracking, barcode inventory tracking.
A barcode carries an identifier, not information. Scanning it looks that identifier up in a database, which is where everything meaningful lives. This is worth understanding because it means the label is the cheap, replaceable part — and that the same physical item can be relabelled without losing its history.
The benefit is not speed for its own sake. It is that scanning removes transcription errors and removes the need for anyone to know an item's reference number.
1D barcodes — the striped kind — are compact, need a reasonably clean line of sight, and generally want a dedicated scanner to be pleasant to use.
QR codes hold more data, survive partial damage, scan from more angles, and read reliably with an ordinary phone camera. For equipment tracking that last point usually decides it: no hardware to buy, and everyone already carries a scanner.
RFID needs no line of sight and can read many tags at once, which is genuinely transformative for reading a whole pallet or a doorway. It also costs materially more per tag and needs readers installed. It earns that cost in high-volume, high-throughput settings, and rarely in a gear room.
Two practical failures account for most disappointment. Labels placed where they get worn away, painted over or covered by a grip — so choose a flat, visible, low-contact surface. And labels of the wrong material for the environment: paper on outdoor plant, or standard adhesive on anything that gets hot, wet or solvent-cleaned.
For equipment that lives outdoors or in workshops, budget for laminated or synthetic labels. Reprinting hundreds of labels because the first batch dissolved is a common and avoidable cost.
Without scannable labels, every record depends on someone correctly reading and typing an identifier — which is why manually maintained registers accumulate items that exist twice and items that exist nowhere.
Itefy generates print-ready QR label sheets for your existing label stock, scannable with any phone through the Itefy Go app — no scanner hardware required. Read more.
For most equipment, yes — mainly because a phone can read them reliably, which removes the need to buy and maintain scanners. Traditional barcodes remain sensible where you already have scanner infrastructure.
No. Label sheets print on an ordinary laser printer. Dedicated label printers such as DYMO or Brother are convenient for one-off labels and for durable synthetic stock, but they are not a prerequisite.
An asset tag is a durable label fixed to a piece of equipment carrying a unique identifier, so the physical item can be matched to its record.
DefinitionAn equipment inventory system is software that maintains a live register of individual equipment items and records every booking, handover, movement and repair against them.
DefinitionAn inventory audit is a physical check of what an organisation actually holds against what its records claim, followed by reconciliation of the differences.
DefinitionChain of custody is an unbroken record of who held a specific item, and when, from the moment it was acquired to the moment it left the organisation.
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