DCMA compliance regulations for asset tracking require very specific conditions to be met in order to maintain military contracts. Most notably, under MIL STD 129 and MIL STD 130, assets are required to be marked with compliant barcodes to allow for precise tracking.
However, just the existence of the barcode isn’t sufficient enough to be compliant. Electronic reports aren’t optional for organizations which are required to conform to IUID compliance regulations. However, in visiting many organizations with an IUID requirement, A2B Tracking has found that, while barcodes are a standard, only a percentage of these IUID barcodes are being registered.
When an organization gets audited by DCMA, the IUID system in place must be able to distinguish between end-item production and government property reporting. End items (assets that are produced by the contractor and delivered to the client,) must be marked, registered, and often delivered with an Advance Shipping Notice (ASN).
Misconceptions around these obligations can result in an expensive oversight for contractors who are responsible for ensuring that these steps are taken for end item deliverables, assemblies, and spare parts under their purview. This is also true for property managers who are responsible for Government Furnished Property (GFP) and Government Furnished Material (GFM). The DoD Instruction 5000.64 states:
Although the Department of Defense may not have physical custody, in order to maintain effective property accountability and for financial reporting purposes, DoD Components shall establish and maintain records and accountability for property (of any value) furnished to contractors as Government furnished property (GFP).
The IUID Registry is the master data source for GFP; thus, inaction surrounding reporting of this data could delay the DoD’s processing of payments.
For both end item deliverables, and GFP and GFM, inaction could also mean that a Product Quality Deficiency Report (PQDR) is issued, which requires a company to initiate a plan to resolve a deficiency in their contract obligation. This results in more expense than is typical for resolving the problem, and the “black mark” remains on the contractor’s records.
This misconception that it is not required to report your marked assets is not the only common misconception about IUID and RFID compliance. To debunk other misconceptions about IUID and RFID compliance, download the free eBook The Most Common Misconceptions About IUID and RFID Compliance.
