Implementing Item Unique Identification in DoD

Defense AT&L, July-August, 2007

Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pa. (the Army Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) and Electronics, Avionics, and Missile Guidance and Control; and the Air Force Technology Repair Center for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence) employs a metal photo process for creating data plates and labels with the UII for the Combat-Service-Support Automated Information System Interface System (CAISI System), and 20 data plates for the AN/PPS-14 Mine Detector Set. In 2007, Tobyhanna is expecting to create an additional 300-plus data plates for the CAISI System and at least 38,000 data plates for additional communications systems in the near term.

Letterkenny Army Depot, Pa., has developed and applied human-readable and two-dimensional data matrix data plates to 715 Mats over a six-month period. Efforts are ongoing with the marking of "Water Buffalo" environmental control units and humvees. Timely, high-quality, economical marking support is being provided to project management offices. Initial operational capability has been attained with full expectation that a full operational capability will be achieved in fiscal year 2007.

The Product Manager, Joint-Automatic Identification Technology (PM J-AIT) is supporting the OSD IUID Policy Office with a project involving the structured demonstration of imagers attempting to read a spectrum of data matrix mark use cases submitted by commercial industry and the Services. The result will be an objective document identifying the commercially available imagers that are capable/incapable of reading data matrix marks with specific characteristics. Concurrently, PM J-AIT has worked with the depot community, providing Anniston Army Depot with its initial RESET marking capability and Red River Army Depot, Texas, with marking apparatus to support multiple depot lines.

Woody serves as an Army logistician in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Integrated Logistics Support.

IUID and Dell: Supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense

Leah Aspell

When Bob Smolinski accepted his position as the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) IT Asset Management Branch Chief in December of 2005, he took on a difficult challenge: how to consolidate 14 different inventory tracking systems into one system that met all the department's needs. Until recently, each of the 14 different components maintained its own IT inventory, and each had a different method for tracking assets. Some components used barcode systems, some had developed a unique numbering system, and a few of the smaller teams effectively "remembered" the distribution of equipment. Despite semi-annual audits by Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), the process lacked a uniform system to track the 38,000 reportable IT assets within and across components.

As soon as Smolinski understood the system requirements and challenges ahead, he immediately thought of IUID, a system for distinguishing a single item from its identical counterparts through the use of an identifying mark or label, and contacted the UID Policy Office.