Department of Defense Mandate

Source: www.acq.osd.mil

Prepared by Supply Insight Inc.

Document Revision: 1.0
Release Date: April 20, 2006
Written by: Supply Insight Inc.

Overview

Dedicated to becoming an early adopter of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology for optimizing its supply chain, the Department of Defense (DoD) requires cooperation and concerted efforts from its suppliers. Being an integral part of Automated Identification Technology (AIT), RFID is a truly transformational technology in achieving the DoD vision of knowledge-enabled logistic support to war fighters through automated visibility and asset management. DoD has issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) pertaining to package marking with readable passive RFID tags at case and pallet-unit load levels when shipping to the Defense Distribution Depot. Contractors must also send an advance shipment notice in accordance to the procedures.

RFID enabled label placement on case.

Source: acq.osd.mil

RFID enabled label placement on pallet unit load.

 

UID, RFID, WWAF Applications in DoD

The Defense Logistics Acquisition (DLA) has made significant revisions to its marking requirements in MIL-STD-129, Revision P, which apply to shipments of packed material to DoD. Improperly marked shipments cannot proceed through the Defense Transportation System and are costly and time consuming to work back again. These delays ultimately cause delay in payments to the contractor and delay in shipment to the war fighter. The revised policy is intended to clarify the marking requirements and alleviate these problems. Any shipment to the DoD must be clearly marked in accordance with the Defense Logistics Acquisition Directive (DLAD) clause 52.211-9010, 'Shipping Documentation-MIL-STD-129P-Takes Precedence over schedule' to generate military shipping label, download, print and affix the label to the shipment.

The MIL-STD-129 labeling is the easiest barcode label and more powerful than ever with support for UID and RFID. It follows a few sets of labels and rules on when and how to use them. The unit and intermediate containers need one set, and exterior containers need another. The intermediate containers are marked in the same way as unit containers, except that the rules for serial numbers change. The diagram below shows the basic example of unit and intermediate container labeling:

Source: acq.osd.mil

The diagram below shows the basic example of exterior container labeling, which is the same basic label format as unit containers but without the item description.

The DoD requires a unique identify for every tangible item sold by contractors and suppliers. According to DoD, a tangible item is defined as:

• Item has an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more

• Item is a serially managed , mission essential or controlled inventory piece of equipment or a reparable item or consumable item or material where permanent identification is required

• Item is a component of a delivered item, if the program manager has determined that unique identification is required

• A UID or a DoD recognized UID equivalent is available

The MIL-STD-130 labeling solution is UID compliant along with RFID and WAWF support necessary to mark and tag the items, and electronically submit UIDs and RFID data for defense contracting.

Source: acq.osd.mil

Contractors who are required to mark the items with UIDs are also required to submit those UIDs to the DoD UID registry in one of these ways:

• WAWF web interface
• UID registry web interface
• EDI/FTP WAWF DD250 / Receiving Report
• Direct UID Registry Transaction
• AIA Partners To Primes (subcontract and embedded UID items)

The MIL-STD labels use RFID readers built into thermal transfer printers to verify the encoding of each RFID tag as the label is printed and the serial number is written to the tag and then read, after which the tag ID is printed on the label. The MIL-STD also includes the ASN (Advance Shipment Notice) to simplify the submission of RFID data to WAWF (Wide Area Work Flow) where in the RFID data file is used for automated electronic submission of ASN to WAWF.

According to the requirements for the DoD RFID mandate compliance:

• Any RFID tag is placed on each case or pallet including unit containers for UID marked items
  
• Each RFID tag is verified at the time of shipment when the Quality Assurance Representatives (QARs) may require on-demand demonstration of the RFID tag readability
  
• Contents of each RFID tagged container and the relationship to each other UID in case or pallet is communicated to WAWF at the time of shipment via manual data entry into the WAWF web application or transmission of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
  

RFID technology has numerous benefits for DoD and suppliers when incorporated into certain business processes for capturing data to enable efficient recording of material transactions. With increased efficiency within the supply chain, improving business functions, and appreciable support for global war fighting requirements, the RFID technology benefits inventory management, visibility to material transactions, operational improvements, shrinkage, and asset tracking. From the supplier point of view, RFID technology improves planning to produce per the demand and streamlines business processes. Reducing the bull whip effect, RFID improves the efficiency in the recall of defective items, thereby increasing the ability to ensure that the products remain stocked on shelves and enables faster receipt of payments for goods supplied.

If implemented in the DoD, RFID will improve inventory management and labor productivity. Replacing the manual procedures to eliminate human errors and duplicate data enhances the business processes within the DoD. Automating the receipt and acceptance of inventory and shipment will improve visibility and management to reduce shrinkage and promote better asset tracking. Exploring the various benefits of incorporating RFID into the organization, the DoD will determine the most cost effective benefits. RFID will be a means to assure accurate data to support the business processes integrated with the DoD supply chain in terms of transportation, supply management, distribution and maintenance, and disposal.

The shipment of goods and materials will be according to the procurement methods, location and layers of packaging. Items will be tagged with a unique identification (UID) on item packaging at the origin (manufacturer/vendor) with a passive RFID tag. The Advance Shipment Notice submission will be through Wide Area Workflow (WAWF) as the RFID DFARS clause requires that all vendors affix passive RFID tags to materials and send an ASN via WAWF only. The Material Inspection Receiving Report (MIRR) is the same ASN for the transaction of materials that is sent to WAWF added to the transaction. The sender relates the passive RFID tag ID at various levels with the details of the contents and shipment configuration with the Advance Shipment Notice transaction. The supplier provides the ID of every RFID tag in the shipment in hexadecimal format along with ASN.

Source: acq.osd.mil

The table below can be used to determine the correct binary value of any valid CAGE code (discussed after the table below).

Source: www.acq.osd.mil

Supply Insight is an RFID software and services company that helps its customer realize business benefits through strategic adoption of this cutting edge technology.  Supply Insight offers a distributed RFID framework and a wide range of industry solutions to generate a faster return on its customers’ investment.  Supply Insight is a privately held company located in Hamden, Connecticut, USA. 
Learn more about us at www.supplyinsight.com.
Corporate Headquarters:
Supply Insight Inc., 2751 Dixwell Avenue, Hamden, CT 06518, USA.
Phone: 203-281-RFID (7343)    Fax: 877-282-4646.
Email:    Sales: sales@supplyinsight.com
                Info: info@supplyinsight.com
                Support: support@supplyinsight.com