Cathexis FFEMS Overview

Automating Your Inventory Management Process

Forest firefighting organizations have million of dollars worth of assets and equipment ranging from pumps to hoses, hand tools to fuel containers. These assets and equipment are often distributed across large geographical areas with many people responsible for their management. Unfortunately, current inventory management systems are not able to keep pace with the demands of managing these valuable and vital emergency assets.BARCODE, MANUAL DATA ENTRY and PAPER BASED inventory systems are known to have the following deficiencies when used to track firefighting equipment:

• Systems are ineffective and expensive to manage and operate
• Systems do not work efficiently across multiple sites/locations
• Exact equipment locations/quantities are not always known – causing critical operational delays and inaccuracies for end of season inventories
• Manual data entry is time consuming and takes employees away from other critical duties
• Paper-based systems make rapid location of assets in emergency situations very difficult
• Report generation is time consuming, and leaves a long paper trail
• No accountability for equipment loss

You Fight the Fire – Let Cathexis Manage Your Inventory!

Cathexis has designed a Forest Firefighting Equipment Management System that utilizes cutting edge RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology and harnesses the power of the Internet to greatly decrease the operational costs associated with inventories, data entry and report generation. At Cathexis, our philosophy is “RFID MADE EASY”; this solution is no exception. Not only will the asset management process improve dramatically, but firefighting staff will have a system that, after a brief orientation period, will make the job of equipment inventory management much easier to do!

System Features

• Low cost – rapid system deployment
• A Web-based software solution – NO IT system management or maintenance costs
• Rapidly access/update inventory data and reports ANYWHERE in the world via the Internet
• Replace paper based reporting with automated data collection
• Rapidly add or remove system users (great for temporary/seasonal workers!)
• Print/view real-time inventory reports in seconds
• Utilizes superior RFID technology – unique asset identification
• Mobile devices allow tracking of assets in-field for full visibility