Introduction

Welcome to UID Quarterly, brought to you by A2B Tracking Solutions as an educational service. Our goal is to make UID compliance easier. Each quarter we’ll bring you interviews with leaders in the UID movement and articles about UID successes, best practice, technologies and evolving standards. We welcome your feedback, and if you find UID Quarterly helpful, we hope you’ll forward it to your colleagues.

Here, then, is what you will find in this inaugural issue:

UID Success – Titan Corporation’s AP&D Division was UID compliant in just two months. Don Griffin, ISO Q.A. Compliance Manager, tells how that was accomplished and shares his tips for achieving quick compliance.

Software Solutions – Bar code guru David Collins, author of “USING BAR CODE – Why It’s Taking Over” and a member of the initial UID Integrated Product Team (IPT) talks about the evolution of bar code and the need for software to facilitate UID compliance.

View From the Program Office - We bring notices from UID News, the UID Program Office newsletter.

Opinion – We interviewed Marsha Campbell, a Sr, Manager in the Valuatiion practice of Deloitte Financial Advisory Servicesm, LLP for her perspective on the property manager's role in UID compliance.

Vendor’s Corner – What will you use, printed labels or direct part marking? Label and printer expert Charles E. Mara shares his recommendations after extensive research.

Titan Corporation Case Study

The Company: Founded in 1981 The Titan Corporation is a leading provider of comprehensive information and communications products, solutions, and services for the Department of Defense, intelligence agencies and other government customers. Titan is a public company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TTN. Titan Corporation’s Advanced Products & Design Division (AP&D) offers a unique product and service portfolio for commercial and government customers developing mission-critical and real-time applications.

The Issue: The Department of Defense (DoD) has adopted policy that requires all tangible items, including assets and personal property owned by the DoD, to be marked with a unique serialized identification number (UID). The UID is required in order to bid and complete DoD contracts. Government contractors and suppliers must immediately meet marking requirements and have a fail-safe method of reporting the data to the UID Registry so that they are in compliance.

The Solution: The impact of UID compliance ripples across many business functions. Strong leadership and teamwork enabled Titan Corporation’s Advanced Products & Design Division (AP&D) to achieve compliance in just two months. A2B Tracking Solutions was called in for analysis and to provide step-by-step guidelines for implementing a fully compliant UID marking process. UID Comply!™ was chosen as a total compliance solution to handle all technical requirements, from label generation, and validation to data management and electronic download to the UID Registry.

Project Manager’s Quality Methodology Leads to Quick
UID Compliance at Titan Corporation’s AP&D Division

When Don Griffin, AP&D’s ISO Q. A. Compliance Manager first heard about the new DoD unique identification (UID) marking requirement, he was unfamiliar with the specific policy requirements, as well as what the impact would be on the organizations product lines. Additionally he wondered what information the UID could provide that a normal bar code couldn’t. With these thoughts in mind, he began researching the UID requirement. This led to an appreciation of the long-term benefits of a permanent identification marking that would provide many advantages, including item visibility to the DoD, regardless of which contractor provided the item. Furthermore, he realized that becoming UID compliant wasn’t an option, but a requirement for performing DoD contracts which form 80 percent of AP&D’s effort.

Mr. Griffin began looking for, and noticing, UID marks on products being received from AP&D’s suppliers. This in turn led him to consider what direct impact the marking requirement would have on AP&D’s various product lines, especially those that are sold by AP&D as a distributor and are shipped direct from suppliers to end customers but are not physically processed at the AP&D facility in San Diego, CA.

UID Spelled Competitive Advantage in Winning Contracts
Mr. Griffin realized that AP&D would need to become fully UID compliant in order to maintain competitive advantage bidding on government contracts. “It’s better to be proactive, than reactive,” he says. That meant an all-out effort that involved pulling together key departments throughout the division, including senior management, legal, marketing, production, design & development, document control and shipping. “Everyone said to me, ‘Don, you become “our” expert, and tell us what we need to do to implement this process,’ and that is the role I assumed in our implementation effort.”

Mr. Griffin began by reviewing information provided on the DoD website, researching companies via the Internet and contacting suppliers already utilizing the UID marking. “It quickly became evident that DoD guidance was lacking in terms of clear implementation assistance. This led us to conclude that turning to an outside expert was a viable, timesaving alternative rather than attempting to implement UID by ourselves”. Mr. Griffin chose A2B Tracking Solutions because of the company’s depth of experience with implementing bar code tracking and compliance. Also because A2B had developed UID Comply!™, a total compliance package that addresses all UID requirements from labeling to final electronic downloading to the UID Registry.

A2B Tracking provided an on-site seminar that explained all aspects of the DoD UID requirement. Then it performed a comprehensive analysis on the impact of compliance on each of AP&D’s product lines. “The first major hurdle was overcome by utilizing the services of A2B. They had a great grasp of UID requirements”. “The analysis phase resulted in A2B providing specific guidance regarding the actions we would need to address in order to implement a fully compliant UID marking process.”

The greatest internal challenge Mr. Griffin faced as project manager was gaining agreement from each of the internal groups affected by UID compliance. “As an ISO 9001:2000 company, there were numerous procedural documents to be revised or created, training to be performed and decisions to be made regarding possible contractual ‘flow down’ of the UID requirement. Document control, production, design and development groups were all directly impacted, as any additional inclusion of a marking on our products must be taken into consideration during the design phase. For example, the location of the marking must be reflected on the each product’s drawings/schematics, and the location/placement of the marking on each product must be determined, and then a decision must be made as to what point the in the product build cycle the marking will be applied.”

Armed with the information from A2B, Mr. Griffin said he was able to reach decisions regarding the direct impact on each group and their respective processes, then create and propose acceptable solutions.

A Straightforward Approach to Achieving Quick UID Compliance
AP&D was UID compliant in just two months. Here are some of Mr. Griffin’s tips for others who are faced with this challenge:

1. Seek expert advice from people who know tracking and compliance technology and have a thorough grasp of UID requirements. The time saved is enormous and more than offsets the cost.

2. Utilize a good quality management system or methodology, and be consistent. It is important to identify the impact of compliance right up front. Mr. Griffin drew upon his skills in managing ISO design and development efforts.

3. Educate each group in the company to the benefits of UID compliance, and explain that non-compliance is not an option.

4. Be diligent in deciding how to apply UID to the entire product line, and consider the volume – Will you apply UID marking to every product or just those intended for the DoD?

5. Pay special attention to the labels and marks and the environments in which they will be used. Will they hold up in harsh environments, including the battlefield?

6. Identify unique needs and requirements in each department, and then respond with answers that are solutions to individual needs.

7. Be solution-focused. If an individual product is too small to accommodate a UID, this might mean working with design engineers to develop a different layout.

Implementation – The Final Step
When all the planning and worst case scenarios were played out, Mr. Griffin chose UID Comply!™ a total compliance solution package from A2B, for the actual implementation of UID. Here’s how that works:

> UID Comply!™ organizes all contract information so a user can create new UID labels and markings for items delivered under contracts linked to all necessary contract details.

> Labels and/or marks are validated and verified using tools which are included in UID Comply!™

> Necessary data is electronically transferred, via UID Comply!™, to the UID Registry.

> Using UID Comply!™ mobile devices, all property managing and reporting is carried out with timeliness and detail to satisfy the Defense Management Contracting Agency (DCMA).

> In addition, UID Comply!™ contains the functionality to meet the DoD legacy item marking and reporting mandate.

> Soon, through UID Comply!™ RF-linked mobile devices, item inventory and item shipping and receiving can be seamlessly managed through the UID Comply!™ software.

Several months after implementation Mr. Griffin reports that everything is running smoothly. He particularly likes The UID Comply!™ software, which coaches users through the various steps. But he also points to another benefit; he can recover data for work in progress. “If I have 300 communication boards with different delivery dates, I am able to identify which UIDs have been manufactured, because UID Comply!™ keeps all that information in the database. And I’m looking forward to the next phase of tracking inventory with the handhelds. My experience with A2B Tracking has been completely positive,” says Mr. Griffin, “not only before the sale, but after, with their incredible technical and customer support staff.”

When asked whether becoming UID compliant so promptly had enhanced AP&D’s ability to be responsive to DOD contractual opportunities, Mr. Griffin had a quick and simple response, “Yes, without a doubt”.

The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of Mr. Don Griffin based on his personal experience, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Titan Corporation. This should not be construed as an endorsement by The Titan Corporation of any UID solution; individuals and companies should consult with their own experts and advisors for specific UID guidance.

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Software Solutions

We asked David Collins for his comments on software solutions to UID compliance. Few people have the perspective or the knowledge to comment on the complexity of the task or the solutions to complete it.

David is Chairman of A2B Tracking Solutions and author of the popular book, “USING BAR CODE – Why It’s Taking Over.” In the mid-1960s he was project manager for the original bar code scanner system, KarTrak, at Sylvania/GTE. His travel to the far corners of the globe in pursuit of bar code's early adoption has contributed to his reputation as "father" of the bar code industry. He was founder of Computer Identics Corporation, the first company to design and manufacture bar code scanning equipment, and as head of Data Capture Institute he designed the Bar Code Asset Tracking System (BCATS) for the Federal Aviation Administration. A frequent lecturer and keynote speaker, David holds numerous bar code-related patents and has received many honors for his work. He served on the initial DoD Integrated Product Team (IPT) for the UID initiative.

UID Compliance – A Complex Task Solved With Dedicated Software
By David J. Collins

There is an acute need to understand the role of software which supports advanced automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) based marking and tracking systems such as the DoD’s UID initiative. Early AIDC systems were mostly bar code based and they evolved when the AIDC industry was young and closely knit, with device and data interface standards exchanged among a handful of pioneering suppliers. Early AIDC systems had challenging design tradeoffs, but the component suppliers were in close communication with each other and were committed to the success of pioneering users.

AIDC has grown up. Today, billion dollar vendors from around the world manufacture the industry’s marking and scanning components. These AIDC components are sold via published contract schedules (GSA) or ordered through the Internet from remote stocking dealers. Now the buyer of an AIDC system has little interaction with the component manufacturers and their expertise, which is often needed to tie a tight system together for top performance.

When the UID Integrated Product Team (IPT) tackled the challenge of developing the specifications underlying the DoD UID Policy, issued July 29, 2003, they wisely strove to achieve two primary goals: First, that the UID lifetime identification mark on assets be composed of open ISO Standard elements. Second, that to be truly useful, item marking and tracking must have the capability of applying to legacy items 50 years back in time and also 50 years ahead, for long-lived assets. In order to achieve these goals and integrate data from UID driven property transactions, the DoD UID initiative is necessarily complex by the measure of early AIDC systems.

To build an efficient UID marking and tracking system, software must be written to tie complex components together and report events to the DoD. This software must accomplish the following: interact with pre-existing enterprise databases; blend with complex Internet and Intranet protocols; direct and respond to scanner/reader-based software and firmware. Furthermore, it must report and archive data from verification and validation software; interface with printer software and firmware; exchange and edit high- and low-level ASCI data with label composition software and PC stand alone or client server-based operating systems and applications, and that is just a beginning list. Then there is a similar litany of software that must be written to direct and respond to the mobile client elements of AIDC, which I won’t even begin to enumerate here.

Drawing on the experience of a seasoned team of AIDC programmers and experts, A2B Tracking Solutions has accomplished the task of developing a UID COTS system that performs, through software, the orchestration of all the elements listed above. UID Comply!™ makes the UID initiative buy-in easy for those contractors who choose to acquire this capability, rather than develop it in-house.

Contact David Collins at dcollins@a2btracking.com

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View from the program office

Here at A2B we enjoy a friendly relationship with the hard-working staff at the UID Program Office. The May-June issue of their newsletter, UID in Action has been released and contains some noteworthy information.

Following is a report on Registry Growth reprinted from UID in Action:
“The UII registry is developing quickly. As of June 13, 2005 there were 17,429 UIIs entered. ITT industries is leading the way in compliance, providing the highest amount of UIIs at 5,678. Carlton Life Support Systems, Inc., a small business, is the second greatest provider. In fact, small businesses are demonstrating UID compliance to an overwhelming degree; of the enterprises using a CAGE code or DUNS to represent their manufacturer’s ID, 55% are small businesses, which accounts for 7,850 marked items. Additionally, seven of the two twenty UII providers are small businesses. We appreciate their efforts to facilitate implementation of UID.”

Bi-Coastal UID Forums Announced
The UID Program Office will be hosting two national forums this fall, in San Diego, CA (September) and Washington, DC (October). The focus will be UID implementation for small and mid-sized businesses and non-ACAT 1D Service program management staff. Details will be available from the Program Office as they develop.

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OPINION:

As a senior manager in the Valuation practice of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP, Marsha Campbell works with entities, including government contractors, to improve compliance and efficiencies in property management. In coordination with the UID Program Office, Marsha has created and taught the National Property Management Association (NPMA) class, UID Primer. This popular class includes a review of regulations, current issues and discussions of implementation strategies. At the 2004 NPMA National Educational Seminar, Marsha was named “Property Person of the Year,” NPMA’s highest award. We asked Marsha to share her advice and experience with property managers and others charged with achieving UID compliance.

1. What should the property manager’s role be in the decisions and implementation of UID requirements?

The property manager should be a catalyst and facilitator to the process. As with any regulation or issue that impacts property, the property manager is not acting alone. Property managers are responsible for ensuring the property is what is required, where it is required, in the condition required, when it is required, and that it is authorized. The UID has a major role in this assurance. Therefore the property manager must interface with those organizations that need the property. This can include obtaining authorizations, handling property, maintaining property and any other activities that touch property.

2 . You hear about the technology and you describe a process diagnostic. How do they fit together, or do they?

As with any business system, there are three facets—people, procedures and process tools. These facets must be in sync with each other, and this occurs when the process experts and the technology experts communicate and work together to understand the requirements and to build the plan together.

3. What is one particularly difficult issue that you see with implementing UID and what is its resolution?

From listening to students in class and talking to other property managers, a key problem is getting the attention of upper management and integrating the solution. The resolution is for the property manager to take an active role in the facilitation.

The first step is to review the contracts to identify requirements for UID and then assess government furnished property. Upon receiving confirmation of a requirement for UID, then progress to the life cycle review.

I would suggest that the property manager put a simple life cycle presentation together. Although the presentation should be simple, significant thought should go into it. In my recent coauthored article in the UID Special Issue of the NPMA journal, The Property Manger, I describe a process for thinking through the life cycle review. The property manager should review the business life cycle, the property and the material life cycles, and determine where UID intersects functions. Review the applicable regulations and the company guidance along that life cycle. Identify what is impacted and what needs to change.

4. For organizations that have not begun an implementation, how would you recommend the property manager get the attention of senior management for a successful implementation?

There is an enormous amount of information on the Internet, so property managers can do their homework. You may also want to forward this UID Quarterly to senior managers. Many times, unfortunately, management will listen more closely to outside sources. For that reason, I would offer for us to provide a teamed presentation to discuss risks of noncompliance, implementation outlines, and assist facilitating the creation and functions of a UID implementation team.

Marsha Campbell may be reached at marshacampbell@deloitte.com
Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP.

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