Standard Procedures For Achieving UID Compliance

Unique Identification (UID)

UID or Unique Identification is a standard mandated by the Department of
Defense (DoD). According the DoD, all assets and personal property including
assets in the possession of the contractors must be marked with a unique
serialized identification number in accordance with MIL STD 130.Whether it
is a legacy or newly requisitioned government property in possession of
contractors (PIPC), UID compliance applies equally to every qualifying
government items with an objective of placing 100 percent of property and
deliverables in the new UID Registry for lifecycle management. The DoD aims
at achieving continuous reporting via their Wide Area Workflow system and
their IUID Registry through proper marking and scanning of each of such
items. Hence, it is imperative for all the products and services be designed
in a way so that they meet the UID compliance standards.

Steps Required For UID Compliance
The following are the steps and procedures that must be completed by the
PIPC and legacy items:

Print & Mark
According to the MIL STD 130, all the qualifying end time deliverables,
government furnished PIPC, and legacy items must be marked with a machine
readable 2D Data Matrix Bar Code. Moreover, such bar code must meet the
printing or marking specifications irrespective of your choice to use a
direct part mark technology (laser etch, ink jet, dot peen, or chemical
etch) or a durable polyester label.

Verify
As per the standard specifications of ISO 15415 and SAE AS9132, all 2D Data
Matrix bar codes must meet their verification standards for mark quality. As
a norm, the metrics for measuring the quality of 2D Data Matrix bar codes
are chosen on the basis of the bar code generating process such as printing
or direct part marking.

Validation
Some ISO 15434 standards should be met by all 2D Data Matrix bar codes.
Usually, these standards are set for formatting and syntax such as
identifiers, message header, non-printable characters and the like.

Scan & Receive
Although this step is not mandatory, it is, however, regarded highly
essential for seamless performance. It is a standard norm of UID Guide v1.5
to ensure that all qualifying items with UIDs should be scanned and tracked
before they are taken into custody. Besides, the UID and acquisition data is
essential for submission to the UID Registry.

Track Item & Location
As an essential procedure of UID Compliance, all qualifying items must
conform to the UID Guide v1.5 and internal business best practice norms.
They should be tracked to a particular location by their UID marks to
ascertain the accuracy in reporting. Again, this step is not a mandatory for
achieving UID Compliance.

Register
As per the standard procedure of UID Compliance, MIL STD 130 necessitates
the submission of the UID date to the UID Registry and WAWF. Whether the UID
data is submitted through the WAWF and UID Registry websites, what is more
important is that it must be in the correct electronic format.

About the Author

ID Integration, Inc. (IDI) is an independent systems integrator that help you create an integrated system of marking, verification, scanning, and database interface tools. Our specialty is UID compliance with your unique application to the proper marking technology and UID data construction.