Laminated Asset Tags

Green tags for one department, red for another, blue for a third: color-coded laminated asset tags let anyone walking a floor see which group owns a piece of equipment without scanning it, while the barcode and number underneath carry the record. The laminate is the part that keeps the scheme working for years. A clear layer over the print protects the barcode and graphics from the abrasion, handling and cleaning chemicals that wear an unprotected label to the point where the scanner stops reading it. PolyLabel laminated tags come in green, red and blue, in three sizes, with a choice of numbering and barcode layouts. This article covers what the laminate does, how to assign color meaning, and what to settle before the first order.

What the laminate does

An asset tag is scanned at every audit, every move and every service call, and between those events it sits on equipment that gets carried, stacked, wiped down and occasionally dropped. The print on an unlaminated label takes all of that directly. Barcodes are the first thing to go: a scratch through the bars, or ink lifted by a solvent wipe, turns a one-second scan into a manual lookup.

Laminated tags put a clear layer between the print and the world. The barcode, the human-readable number and the color are all sealed underneath it, so what the cleaning cloth and the edge of the next crate touch is the laminate, not the ink. The tag stays scannable for as long as the equipment is in service, which is the whole point of tagging it in the first place.

PolyLabel’s laminated tags are described as extra-durable PolyAsset labels, with the laminate there for the applications where the print needs that protection. If the equipment is handled daily, cleaned regularly or moved between sites, laminated is the version to specify.

Decide what the color means

Color is a classification you can read from across the room. It is worth exactly as much as the consistency of the rule behind it, so the first job is to pick one rule and hold to it.

By department. The most common scheme. IT, facilities, clinical, finance: each department that owns equipment gets a color. When a piece of equipment turns up in the wrong area, the color says who to call before anyone opens the register.

By site or building. For organizations with several locations, color identifies where the asset belongs. Equipment that migrates between buildings is spotted on sight, and a site audit can start by pulling everything that is the wrong color for the room.

By ownership. Owned versus leased is a distinction that matters at end of term, and a color makes it visible on the equipment rather than buried in a field in the database. Leased assets get one color so nobody surplus-disposes a laptop that has to go back to the lessor.

By audit cycle. Some registers audit high-value or regulated assets more often than the rest. A color for the annual-audit group and another for everything else tells the auditor which tags to hunt for.

Pick one axis. Three colors cannot encode department and site and ownership at once, and a scheme that tries to will be misread. Whatever the color does not carry, the number and the register carry instead.

Green tags for one department, red for another

With green, red and blue available, a straightforward assignment is one color per group, for up to three groups. Green tags for the department with the largest equipment count, red for the group whose assets most need to stand out, and blue for the third. Which department gets which color does not matter; that it never changes does.

Where there are more than three groups, the answer is not more colors. Group the departments into three tiers that matter for the floor-level question, for example equipment that can move freely, equipment that stays in its building, and equipment under lease, and let the register hold the finer split. A fourth color that only one person remembers the meaning of is worse than no color at all.

Record the assignment somewhere permanent, such as the front page of the asset register or the tagging procedure, so that the person ordering tags in three years’ time orders the right color for the right group.

Color supplements the barcode; it does not replace it

The color answers one question quickly. The barcode answers every other question exactly. Keep them in their lanes.

A color scheme without a barcode is a visual aid with no audit trail. A barcode without a color scheme is a perfectly good asset register that requires a scanner to answer even the simplest question. Together, the color handles the walk-through and the barcode handles the reconciliation, and neither has to do the other’s job.

This also protects the scheme from drift. If a department is renamed, merged or split, the barcode numbers and the register records are unaffected. The color assignment may need a note in the procedure, but the tags on the equipment stay valid.

Choose the numbering and barcode layout

PolyLabel laminated tags are available in three sizes: ¾ × 1⅞, ⅝ × 1⅜ and ½ × 1 in. The larger size gives the barcode more room and is the easier scan; the smallest fits small devices, cables and accessories where anything bigger would overhang the surface.

The numbering options are:

• Human-readable number above or below the barcode. The standard choice for an asset register. The number can be read and keyed if the scanner is not to hand, and the barcode carries the same number for the scan.
• Barcode only. For tags that will always be scanned and never keyed. Saves space on the smaller sizes.
• Numbering only. For registers that do not scan, or for equipment where the barcode is on a separate label and the colored tag is purely for identification.
• None. A blank colored tag, for color-coding on its own.

Match the layout to how the register is actually used. If the audit is done with a scanner, barcode with a human-readable number is the safe choice. If the tags are on equipment that has an existing barcode elsewhere, numbering only or none avoids two barcodes on one asset.

For a broader walk-through of the tagging process, from numbering ranges to placement, see how to asset tag equipment.

Plan the color scheme before the first order

The mistake that costs the most is ordering the first batch to cover one department, then discovering when the second department is tagged that the color meaning has to change. Retagging is the only fix, and it means finding every piece of equipment that was tagged the first time.

Before the first order:

• Settle the color rule and write it down.
• Assign each color to a group, and confirm with the group that they are not already using that color for something else, such as a maintenance status or a safety marking.
• Set the number range for each color so that the register can tell, from the number alone, which batch a tag came from.
• Pick one size and one layout per color, so reorders are exact repeats.
• Order the quantities for the whole first pass across all groups, not just the first department, so the colors go on at the same time.

Reorders are then a matter of repeating the last specification with the next number range.

Specifying your laminated asset tags

Laminated asset tags keep the barcode readable through the equipment’s service life, and a color rule that is settled before the first order lets the tag say at a glance what the register says in full. Green tags, red tags and blue tags are each available in the three sizes and all numbering layouts; start with the green laminated tag page for the full set of options.

Tell us how many assets you are tagging per color, the size that suits the equipment, and whether you scan or key the numbers, and we will confirm the layout and number ranges. Request a quote, or ask for samples to test the laminate on your equipment before you order.