IUID Compliance Takes Shape at Army Depot
John Arnold pulled through the gates of the vast army depot, on a cloudless Monday morning, aware of a new challenge he was facing. Late in the previous week he was informed of a new directive spelled out in MIL-STD-130, the need to uniquely identify items flowing through his department. As Directorate of Maintenance he knew that the stringent IUID requirements would apply to the vehicles his crew repairs and sends back into the field. The question of how to solve this new challenge had lingered with him all weekend.
Once John began to investigate he knew he had lots of company. His peers in other depots were equally puzzled about how to solve this "pain in the neck" requirement. In the beginning they went to various automatic identification (AIT) and IUID Forums to learn more about IUID. "The Forums that were hosted by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and conducted at various depots already implementing or starting the IUID implementation process were the most helpful," he says. "These provided us with good insight into what to expect and helped us to avoid some of the problems that other depots had encountered when implementing their programs."
John's team first researched the IUID technology available at the time and decided they wanted a turnkey system that would handle all the steps for compliance - create the UII, mark the item, verify and validate the mark and submit the information to the IUID Registry. "When we talked with people from other depots who had tried to design their own systems, they told us their efforts didn’t work out. So we decided to save time by buying a good system and then we just started marking."
John says his team selected A2B Tracking Solutions' UID Comply!® Software not only because it was the best UID data management software product for their legacy environment, but also because of the knowledge and responsiveness of the company's staff. Even though John makes the implementation sound simple, there was a great deal of engineering planning and expertise, along with installation and training that made it possible for his team to "just start marking."
A2B engineering personnel made several onsite visits to assess technical considerations including IUID plate design, marking options and the IUID registration process. Currently there are 40 separate items that require marking, although that number is growing steadily as the TACOM (Tank and Automotive Command) program manager identifies additional items. It was soon determined that several marking methods would be required, due to the variety of materials and the environment to which items are exposed.
John's team creates vehicle data plates and parts data tags for Humvees and trailers that come in from the field for overhaul and repair. Because his process requires a variety of marking options, he set up an IUID Lab, where UID Comply! Software drives YAG and CO2 flat bed lasers as well as Metalphoto®, and dot peen marking systems. UID Comply! also provides verification and validation via a Siemens verifier and a Siemens Hawkeye scanner.
In all, seven functions within the depot (hydraulic shop, electronics shop, etc) are impacted by the IUID process. When parts need to be tagged, each area provides a list of tags they require, and the IUID Lab produces the tags and sends them to back for affixing. The part and serial numbers which are included in the part tag are linked with the vehicle plate in a parent/child relationship. An XML file is created in UID Comply! and the IUID data from the vehicle data plate is electronically transferred to the IUID Registry utilizing A2Bs VAN (value added network) service. The VAN service saves an enormous amount of time by eliminating time-consuming manual entry and the inevitable data entry errors. Another advantage of the VAN is that prior to sending the IUID data to the IUID Registry, the data is “scrubbed” to make sure that any imported legacy data from other systems meet the IUID Registry schema requirements.
Now that John has successfully implemented IUID he no longer thinks of it as a "pain in the neck" but sees the big picture and the potential for being able to track the military’s assets from cradle to grave. When the other maintenance systems at his depot are set up, he plans to implement Serialized Item Management (SIM) by tracking all items, internally, throughout the re-assembly process.
When asked what advice he has for others who need to manage IUID, John suggests going to other depots to see first-hand how they are handling compliance. "You can skip a lot of pitfalls when you see a streamlined system," he says.
As for A2B Tracking, John has nothing but praise. "Anytime we need to change something, A2B is very responsive, and their support is really excellent."
Now, when he drives into the depot, John views the vast stockpile of materiel differently. He understands that, because of IUID, the day is fast approaching when there will be visibility behind every wall and indeed inside every asset within the military's wide area workflow. That granular visibility creates efficiencies unimagined in military history, and John knows that he is at the cutting edge of something big.
* The facts in this case study are completely accurate. The identity of the depot is not revealed for security and other reasons.
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