The Air Force AIT PMO has been exceptionally responsive to the challenges of marking legacy equipment throughout the world. Here at A2B we are proud to be in the middle of that effort. Our Air Force part marking teams are currently deployed to 26 bases, with another 221 on the horizon over the next two [...]
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. During the course of the show I conducted a round table discussion, as subject matter expert, for the UID Registry. Our product manager Jim Daniels was also on [...]
This Q&A-style article in the Providence Business News addresses 5 questions that cover: How we got our start at A2B. The difference between tracking an item with a UID and tracking milk at the grocery store. Challenges to UID in the military operating environment. UID beyond the military. How we’re setting the stage for UID [...]
Who says that UID tracking need only be used for military assets? The recent outbreak of salmonella in egg production presents an excellent opportunity for the use of UID in America’s food chain. From a weekend news article: “Brand names that are believed to be linked to the outbreak are: Lucerne, Albertsons, Mountain Dairy, Ralphs, [...]
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. When managing virtual [...]
NATO’s dedication to the adoption of UID is becoming more evident. A newly-released, 75-page guide titled NATO Guidance on Unique Identification (UID) of Items (July 2010) gives detailed instruction for implementing UID across 28 independent member countries. This very comprehensive document covers the proper marking of items requiring UID, in accordance with the STANAG 2290. It also [...]
Recent changes to all property bearing contracts administrated by the DCMA are having an effect on government furnished property (GFP) property managers. There is movement away from high level aggregate reporting of government property (GFP) TOWARD item specific reporting that falls in line with DFARS 252.211-7007. This is illustrated by the Jan 11, 2010 Memorandum from Director, [...]
I recently returned from Norfolk, VA, where I heard a number of presentations on the Navy’s implementation of IUID. Topics included the affixing of UIDs to items for lifetime use, managing UID data to the UID Registry, supporting legacy information systems and establishing marking processes. I came away realizing that the Navy’s systems are lagging [...]
There is a rule of thumb in software development that for every $1 spent to develop original software code an additional $3 is spent to maintain the software. In other words, software that costs $2 million to develop will eventually cost $6 million. There are many reasons for this, including routine maintenance, but modifications that [...]
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 [...]