IUID Blog

Last week I attended the National Property Management Associations’ national conference in Las Vegas. As typical, I presented to a broad audience of property professionals on the topic of UID and what the policy and technology means to the property manager. In preparation for the meeting, I found myself cramming in updates on UID and FAR policy as it applies to the property administrator. (I often get the cliff notes from Doug Goetz who is one of the most knowledgeable property professionals that I’ve ever met). During my session, I provided a brief policy update and then dove into best business practices for property identification and accountability. I focused on users preparing for auto ID technology or UID but don’t know where to start. More often than not, they’re managing property by spreadsheets and sometimes trying to manage property with spreadsheets at an enterprise level!

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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)

As anticipated last week’s UID Forum had heavy attendance with more than 900 participants. This shows a steadily growing awareness of UID and a groundswell of implementation. (Read More)

I don’t mean to be overly simplistic but these questions frame the challenges that we see every day as the US military rolls out their UID policy to track valuable DoD assets and equipment around the world.  Every day we receive phone calls or meet people at conferences and they ask the same question: What items do I need to mark?  Of course, they typically are asking what the DoD’s policy dictates, but I believe that definition is far too narrow as it only begins the analysis of what  in your custody or area of responsibility MUST be marked.  (Read More)