Digitalisation has arrived in municipal inventory management in Germany: while the management of municipal inventory (which includes traffic signs and equipment such as park benches or waste bins) has so far mostly been carried out manually, cities will handle this digitally in the future. There are some advantages to this step, as the previous manual management is often ineffective, time-consuming and very prone to disruptions.
To counteract the digital deficit in this particular area of application, the system “KIV-digital” (Kommunale Inventarverwaltung digital = municipal inventory management digital) was developed. The developer is osapiens Services GmbH in cooperation with Güteschutzgemeinschaft Verkehrszeichen und Verkehrseinrichtungen e.V.. Thanks to the system, cities and municipalities will be able to stocktake, control and manage their inventory comprehensively and easily in the future.
For this purpose, each traffic sign is equipped with a unique QR code, which allows it to be clearly assigned to the respective city or municipality. The code is printed on the traffic sign by the manufacturer during production (see image 1). Municipal inventory that is already in use is subsequently given a corresponding QR code that will be manually placed on the back (see image 2).
All QR codes can be scanned with standard smartphones via the “KIV digital” app so that the traffic signs can be quickly and easily recorded by the user and then digitally managed in the KIV portal. Here the user can, for example, enter basic data such as type, size or service life. The KIV app is available to download for iOS and Android systems in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
To support digital inventory management, upon customer request in the future SWARCO mark new traffic signs with a unique QR code already during production. This QR code will also be stored in the KIV database with the corresponding data. For your existing traffic signs, you can of course obtain readymade inventory stickers from SWARCO already now and attach them to the back of your signs.
Source: SWARCO
