Your Warehouse Has 20 Scanners. Who Has Them Right Now?

2026 January 13

It's a simple question. You probably can't answer it.

Your warehouse has 20 Zebra scanners. Each one cost $1,200. That's $24,000 worth of equipment walking around your facility right now.

So who has them?

If you're like most operations managers, you think you know. You have a spreadsheet somewhere. Maybe it was updated six months ago. Maybe someone in HR filled it out during onboarding. Maybe your shift supervisor keeps a mental note.

But you don't actually know.

The Math That Should Scare You

Let's run the numbers on a typical 150 person manufacturing operation:

• 20 ruggedized scanners at $1,200 each = $24,000
• Average annual loss rate without governance: 15%
• Annual replacement cost: $3,600

That's just scanners. Add in:

• Tablets for quality control
• Handheld radios
• Calibrated measuring tools
• Company phones

Most operations lose $15,000–$35,000 annually to missing, broken, or unaccounted for equipment.

And that's just the replacement cost. It doesn't include:

• Production delays when equipment can't be found
• Duplicate purchases because "we thought we had one somewhere"
• Compliance failures when calibrated tools go missing
• The 4 hours your supervisor wastes every month hunting for equipment

The Real Problem: Nobody Owns This

Your IT team manages laptops. Your fleet manager handles vehicles. Your facilities team tracks building assets.

But who owns the scanners?

Nobody. They exist in a governance dead zone. They're too valuable to ignore but not important enough for anyone to formally track.

So they drift. People take them home by accident. They get left in trucks. They sit in someone's locker for three months. When employees leave, half the time nobody asks for them back.

The Offboarding Blind Spot

Here's the moment everything breaks down: employee departure.

When John from Shipping quits, does anyone ask:

• "Where's the scanner we gave you?"
• "Did you return the handheld radio?"
• "What about that tablet for the forklift certifications?"

Probably not. Your HR exit checklist has "Return company laptop" on it. It doesn't mention the $1,200 scanner John's been using for 18 months.

Two weeks later, that scanner is gone forever.

Over three offboardings, you've lost $3,600 in equipment that nobody even noticed was missing until someone needed it and couldn't find it.

What Actual Control Looks Like

Companies with real asset governance don't guess. They know.

They know:

• Exactly who has each scanner, assigned by serial number
• When it was issued and to whom
• Whether it's been returned or is overdue
• Which devices haven't been scanned or verified in 90+ days

They know this because they have a system of record (not a spreadsheet), and they have a process (not hope) for keeping it accurate.

When someone leaves, recovery is automatic:

1. HR triggers offboarding
2. Assigned assets are flagged for return
3. Manager receives automated reminder
4. Asset isn't closed until it's physically returned or formally written off

No guessing. No searching. No surprises six months later.

The Question You Should Be Asking

Not "Do we have 20 scanners?"

But: "Can I prove right now, in under 60 seconds, who has each one and when they last confirmed they have it?"

If the answer is no, you don't have an inventory problem.

You have a governance problem.

And it's costing you thousands of dollars every year, you just don't see it because nobody's counting.