Patent ID: 6922687

Claim:
A system for managing physical assets, the system comprising: a computer database that for tracking physical assets with each physical asset assigned a unique identifying code that is unique for all assets tracked by the system with no two assets belonging to different classes of physical assets and no two assets belonging to the same class of physical assets having the same identifying code; a plurality of scanners located in a corresponding plurality of different geographic locations throughout the system, the scanners being capable of reading the unique identifying code assigned to a particular physical asset, the unique identifying code being embedded in a unique identifying label attached to the physical asset; a communications link between the plurality of scanners and the computer database; and wherein every time a status of a physical asset changes over the course of a cycle of change in status, the unique identifying label attached to the physical asset is scanned by one of the plurality of scanners and the unique identifying code is transmitted over the communications link to the computer database.