IUID Blog

Since the inception of IUID policy back in 2003, the debate over encoding syntax with UID has raged on. Early in the adoption, what I’ll call the “engineering mindset” won the debate, which prompted many to choose construct 2 as their format of choice. Now that almost 8 years have passed, the practicality and direct experience involved in part marking has pushed construct 1 directly into the planning psyche. Both constructs are viable options for encoding the UID however this post will act as a recap of the two approaches to MIL STD 130 and UID encoding. (Read More)

There has been a lot of discussion around the use of virtual UIIs when submitting data to the UID Registry. Indeed some areas of the military have suggested use of virtual UIIs only as a last resort. I agree, but with one important exception - GFP that is being managed under contract. (Read More)

Last week I attended the National Property Management Association’s annual education seminar in Myrtle Beach, SC. I’m always impressed with the depth of educational content and industry knowledge that converge at this conference, where property professionals gather to hone their knowledge of equipment and asset management. (Read More)

In follow up to a former blog entry (A2B Hosts User Group Meeting), I’d like to share insights from the meeting in San Antonio.  With over 50 people participating, A2B led the discussion about our products and services roadmap.  Part of our goal was to generate discussion throughout the community of UID Comply!® software users and part of the goal was to share challenges that we were anticipating and starting to address for that community of users.  For instance, we recognize that not everything can be solved with technology.  Sometimes the community just needs down and dirty support in navigating UID policy issues. That’s why we’ve introduced A2B’s free new service to Premium-One™ support customers  - the UID Coach™. (Read More)

Although the DoD and the UID policy office have achieved significant momentum in implementing UID, there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome. One of them is bad UIDs. I’m not talking about choosing the wrong barcode symbology. I’m not talking about the quality of the UID 2D Data Matrix image. I’m talking about encoding to MIL-STD-130. (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)