If your organization wants to do business with the US Military having an Audit Readiness plan is critical to your success. An important part of audit preparation is acquiring the proper documentation that proves your compliance to your contract obligations and to any applicable military standards. The two most important documents for your IUID Labels are the IUID Conformance and Verification Reports.
When the DCMA Auditors visit your organization — it’s fairly easy to show them your labels affixed to each of your items in your facility. And it should not be difficult to scan one or two barcodes to show that they are working. But, the next question the auditor is going to immediately ask is: “What documentation do you have that confirms the labels are MIL-STD-130 compliant?”
When you receive your labels from an IUID Label vendor, you should be provided two things:
1. Certificate of Conformance – A Certificate of Conformance is a report that your IUID label vendor should supply that produces a complete list of the labels that have been produced and confirms that they meet all of the standards for IUID Compliance.
2. Verification Report – A Verification Report shows that each label has been verified against validation and verification compliance requirements. The Validation process ensures that the data elements (the syntax) in the 2D Data Matrix barcode meet the obligations of MIL-STD-130. The Verification process checks the quality, or the legibility, of the 2D Data Matrix barcode to ensure that it’s readable for the lifetime of that asset.
These two reports are your get out of jail free cards. This documentation is essential to pass a DCMA audit. Please understand that you should never receive a verification report that shows a failed label. A label that can not pass the verification process should not be applied to any of your assets. It will not pass an audit and will only cause trouble later. Every single IUID label that you receive and apply to your assets need to be verified with a passing grade of a “B” or better.
Whenever A2B Tracking provides IUID labels for our customers, we give them a Certificate of Conformance and a Verification Report with their labels at no extra charge. Not only do we provide our customers these reports; but, we maintain these records as well. Furthermore, our UC Web software can act as a data repository to record an audit trail for all of the significant asset events for each of your assets. This cloud-based platform is a complete asset management solution that makes it even easier for your organization to prove that you are complying to the latest IUID requirements. We want to make sure our customers can easily produce records and information that support their compliance and reporting obligations.
Having IUID Conformance and Verification Reports on-hand will make a DCMA audit go much more smoothly. Not only will it give you confidence going into the audit but will also show the DCMA your full understanding of your contract obligations and your level of audit readiness.
To learn more… here is a 2-minute video segment taken from one of my recent webinars that talks about IUID Conformance and Verification Reports. Enjoy!
