IUID Blog

Fads come and go. Those that have “staying power” become trends that inevitably provide benefit to organizations or society as a whole. Bar code, now 50 years old and counting, is well beyond a fad. The benefit of bar code has often been to enable “visibility” of items or people. These important things are tracked and accounted for, automatically. (Read More)

Yesterday at A2B headquarters we celebrated the 50th bar code anniversary with Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and RI Congressman Cicilline and Governor Chafee. The Congressman presented our very own A2B Tracking Chairman, David Collins, with a congressional citation congratulating him for being the “father of the bar code industry.” For more information on the history of the bar code, visit The Changes Bar Code has brought to Worldwide Commerce blog post.  (Read More)

Imagine the world before bar code. A2B will soon host an Open House to celebrate the 50th anniversary of bar code scanning. That milestone makes me reflect on the changes that bar code has brought. In 1961, when the first test scan occurred on a Boston & Maine railcar, computers were being used to perform rudimentary accounting and operational functions in both industry and the military. Punch cards were used to communicate between those computers and their users – a slow and expensive process. Data was key-entered, which made it highly prone to error.  (Read More)

Wide Area Work Flow (WAWF) is bringing two parts of the organization together that typically don’t interact with regularity: contracts and production.  UID or Item Unique Identification is the common thread.  More and more, contracts require that UID data is to be registered to the IUID Registry through WAWF.  The real challenge to this approach is getting the UID submission correct.  Many organizations use WAWF through the DoD provided web portal.  That portal provides for the submission of contract deliverables with UIDs.  The UID must be manually entered as part of that submission.  Imagine “hand-jamming” a string of alpha-numeric characters (e.g. D1TZJ4P9983100023623401BE410987) that will vary, sometimes drastically, hundreds of times as part of the submission process.  This not only poses risk to submitting incorrect UID data to the IUID Registry, which is very time consuming to correct, but as the government becomes better prepared to accept UIDs in their receipt and acceptance process, any inconsistencies between the data on the MIL STD 130N label on the item and what has been entered to the IUID Registry will become painfully obvious.  Shipments will be rejected and invoices will be held for payment. (Read More)

I was faced with a recent discussion that really surfaced a debate over the use of 2D bar code (UID) vs. pRFID (passive RFID) for serialized item identification and tracking. Let’s assume for a moment that there is absolutely no cost difference between the implementation and ongoing sustainment of these two technologies.



 (Read More)

As I write this entry, I’m traveling back from a very large US manufacturer and supplier to the Department of Defense. I’ll remain vague in describing the company to protect the innocent, however, it’s safe to say that they are in a business that requires an extraordinary amount of precision and discipline. As we prepared for the site visit to this company, it became obvious to me the commonality between implementing IUID (Item Unique Identification, although I’ll refer to it as UID going forward) and a manufacturing operation much like the one we were about to visit. What’s the common thread? Making critical decisions based upon precision data. In their business, accuracy is critical. Low to zero tolerances are the norm. Fast forward to the meeting and our discussions quickly moved beyond the UID compliance obligation, DFARs 252.211-7003, and MIL STD 130N discussions and into benefits of UID to their organization. I was impressed with how quickly this organization acknowledged UID benefits to precisely and accurately tracking parts through manufacturing, production, final assembly as well as back through maintenance and repair cycles. All facets of the company were represented including materials management, maintenance, logistics, supply chain, contracts, and IT. Without question, this represented a very diverse group to tackle the UID initiative laid out by DoD.  (Read More)

When WAWF is mentioned by our clients, there is typically a “groan” and telling of a not-so-flattering experience with the application, especially as it applies to UIDs. However the fact remains that more and more contracts are requiring that UID submissions take place using WAWF. So what’s the big deal? (Read More)

Force Protection Industries Inc. takes the basics of mine protection to the extreme with its heavy armored Buffalo® vehicles. When it became necessary to track these vehicles and their spare parts per MIL STD 130 and MIL STD 129, Force Protection turned to a team of experts at Seagull Scientific, A2B Tracking Solutions and The Danby Group. To learn more about how UID compliance was achieved, click here to watch the Saving Heroes Lives video.  (Read More)

As if supporting the DoD’s successful implementation of UID weren’t a large enough undertaking, A2B is also providing support to AIM NA’s (www.aim-na.org) early formulation of the Internet of Things working group.  (Read More)

It’s difficult to predict when OUSD memos come out and what they’ll look like when released. That said, the latest, “ IUID of Tangible Personal Property – Policy Refinement for Secondary Items in Use or in Inventory” dated Dec 30, 2010, is important. It stresses how critical property accountability is to DoD, while referencing a Joint Logistics Board (JLB) recommendation that it is still acceptable to count items where no item level traceability is required during that item’s lifecycle. In so many words, they refine the use of IUID for secondary items in use or inventory to include only those items that meet the following criteria: (Read More)