As we’ve previously discussed, the adoption of equipment tagging continues to rise among contractors, particularly the Bluetooth tracking tag.
Recently announced, the newest tracking solution from Milwaukee® Tool has arrived: The ONE-KEY™ Bluetooth® Tracking Tag. This product was designed specifically with contractors’ continued adoption and usage of equipment tagging best practices in mind.
A quick recap of its industry innovations:
So, how does it differ from Milwaukee Tool’s other offerings?
That’s what we’ll be discussing in this article, as well as which applications you would use each tracking solution.
The Milwaukee TICK Tool & Equipment Tracker, first announced in 2017, was an innovative product: a professional, construction-grade Bluetooth tracker that offered versatility with a low-profile design, multiple attachment options, and the ability to withstand the harshest jobsite conditions.
Many large contractors to this day use TICK trackers across their inventories. It’s worth noting that, among the articles featured in our support site, the “Add a TICK™ Tracker” article remains among the most viewed of articles. And, while the majority of users who reach the end of this article and use the “Was this article helpful? prompt select “Yes,” a considerably large percentage of users opt for the other. These responses are not lost on us. For many, the reason our support documentation for adding a TICK is not helpful is that connecting via Bluetooth with a TICK—manually getting the TICK open, pulling the battery out, waiting 10 seconds, putting it back in—can be frustrating, especially if you experience a syncing error and need to repeat the whole process again.
The TICK is still a revolutionary, industry-disrupting product. But when developing its successor, the Bluetooth Tracking Tag, we went in with two important questions in mind:
TICK Pain Points:
The One-Key Asset ID Tag, which we recently launched and announced last year, fills an important gap that had existed in our product line: an entry-level tracking solution for the professional contractor.
Product Background:
Back then, the TICK tracker was our solitary tracking hardware product, and it was comparatively expensive when used for things like small hand tools, job carts, garbage bins, and so forth. For these items, the TICK may have offered more advanced tracking functionality, but to a fault; for inexpensively priced consumables like these, the price of a TICK wasn’t justified, but that didn’t mean a tracking solution wasn’t needed. Small tools are among the commonly lost items onsite, and making a habit of replacing them can seriously overrun your project and negatively impact your ongoing business.
The then-dominant solution for keeping track of these items was the barcode, primarily used in warehouses. While using traditional barcodes remains possible with One-Key, we found multiple problems exhibited by contractors using them in the field: They were prone to becoming worn out (hard to scan and quick to fall off); lacking in the durability department, they still frequently require expensive external hardware (barcode readers), which may not be compatible with all barcodes.
The One-Key Asset ID Tag gives professional contractors a viable option for using equipment barcoding practices in jobsite settings, engineered with jobsite durability in mind, but also adds additional, key features that traditional barcodes simply can’t compete with.
Key Features of One-Key Asset ID Tags:
We’ve now discussed the improvements to our legacy TICK that the One-Key Bluetooth Tracking Tag addresses. We’ve also discussed how our Asset ID Tag fills a gap that existed in the industry by delivering a jobsite-capable asset tag, offering entry-level tracking capabilities for consumables that traditional barcodes can’t compete with.
Now, how about a comparison between an Asset ID Tag and a Bluetooth Tracking Tag? When would you use one over the other?
If you’re looking for entry-level inventory tagging capabilities, such as for lower-priced items like hand tools and job carts, we recommend using an asset ID tag.
You might also use an asset ID tag as part of your check-in/out processes of inventory you’re sending to a job. With our tool kitting feature, you can, for example, get everything you’re sending organized in the app, and loaded in a PACKOUT™. Then, when that PACKOUT arrives onsite, your in-field crew can scan an asset ID tag that’s been secured to the outside of your PACKOUT and get a list of everything inside, which can be verified; missing items can be left unchecked, and the kitting report sent back to the tool team via a PDF attachment sent by email of what’s missing and needs to be filled.
We generally recommend tagging your higher-priced items with a Bluetooth tracking tag because it adds additional tracking capabilities for items that don’t have One-Key in them by default (think: standard Milwaukee tools and tools and equipment from other manufacturers).
Let’s consider the above-mentioned kitting scenario.
Missing items could be marked as such, and once the item is seen by our network, you’ll get an alert.
On the other hand, the added Bluetooth tracking capabilities of this kind of tag can be used onsite when getting ready to send stuff back to the crib.
While both an asset ID tag and a Bluetooth tracking tag can be scanned if you have the item on-hand, its details pulled up, as a way to ensure the item is where it needs to be, the Bluetooth tag helps you make sure nothing is forgotten and left behind.
For example, maybe one of your guys was working upstairs and forgot to bring the tool he was using back down and into the kit after he was done. The foreman onsite can check the tool kit list and verify what’s there, same as with check-in. When he sees an item is missing, he’d be able to scan the area for the item. The in-app last-100ft tracking experience gets him in the general area of where the item is. If he still can’t see it, he can use the onboard speaker to ring the tag, hear where the ringing is coming from, and locate the resting place of its associated item.
To recap: We offer a number of Bluetooth tracking solutions that allow you to get the most out of our app, as well as our industry-leading Bluetooth community, regardless of whether your tool is red and bears a lightning bolt.
General guidelines to improve tool tracking: