Last month I hosted a webinar on IUID Compliance. We had a great audience with a broad range of organizations — some with very little experience and others who had been managing End Items or Government Property for years. It was a great opportunity for me to go through and explain the entire IUID Compliance process — highlighting the critical steps. But, maybe the most valuable part of the session was answering questions from the audience. This post is devoted to highlighting some of those IUID Frequently Asked Questions.

How do I determine the size of an IUID Label?

First and foremost, you want to go back to your contract to see if there were any drawings or detailed specifications. Often, but not always, your contract will tell you the exact size and material type for your IUID label.

If there is nothing in your contract that clarifies what IUID label size to use, you will need to look at the asset and determine how much room you have available. Different assets will require different size IUIDs. For example, let’s say you’re marking a laptop. Some of the more common sizes of UID labels could be 2″x 1″, 3″x1″, or 1-3/4″x1/2″. For a laptop, I’d probably go with a 1-3/4″x1/2″.

However, let’s say you would like to put some more information on that label besides the Cage code, Part#, Serial# and the Barcode.

If you want your company logo and your company name, or maybe “Property of US Government”. All of those additional elements, often referred to as Human Readable Information (or HRI) are fine to add – as long as you have space. Understand that those additional elements are gonna take up real estate on your label. You need to size the label according to how much data you want to display.

However, you need to take into account the amount of space that you have available on your asset where you can apply the label. It could be that you have a limited amount of real estate to fit a label on a particular asset.

If you have space constraints on your asset — you need to make sure that at minimum you keep the IUID Compliance data: Your Cage#, Part# and Serial#s. If you still have room for more content after meeting the compliance requirements, it is fine to add whatever elements your organization would like.

Be aware that the smaller that you make IUID data elements on your label, the more difficult it is to read them. There is a temptation to shrink the barcode down to make room for your logo. When you shrink your barcode smaller (or your other data elements) you’re compromising the legibility of the data. Make sure that your barcode still scans and passes the Verification process — otherwise, you are in non-compliance.

There are some situations where larger IUID labels make sense. I’ve had some orders in the past, where the assets are located in big storage facilities. These are massive storage warehouses with large assets, or containers, where a little 2″x1″ label would really be a challenge to find. In this situation, making the label a little bit bigger than it needs to be so that it is easier to find makes sense. Maybe a 4″x2″ label is a little more expensive but, can save time and make things much easier in the long run.

In summary, take into account the size of the asset, the amount of space on the asset that you have available for your label and obviously how much content you are wanting to include in your label. Taking a look at all of those factors will determine the size of your IUID label. MIL-STD-130 does not say – you must use a specific size label. But obviously, you need to incorporate all the required information in order to make a compliant IUID label.

To learn more about how to determine the size of an IUID Label watch this quick video segment from our IUID Compliance webinar.

What is an IUID Verification Report?

After the IUID Labels have been produced, it is accepted as a best practice, to run those labels through a Verification and Validation process. That means that you are going to use a Verifier, which is a specialized piece of hardware that can check the quality of your IUID labels. At the end of this QA process you should get a Verification Report — sometimes referred to as a Conformance Report.

If you outsource your IUID labels to an outside vendor make sure that you will be supplied with a Verification Report.

The Verification Report is a key document to have on file for your audit history. You want to make sure that you have that report available if a DCMA auditor inquires about those assets. A Verification Report will confirm that those IUID Labels meet the MIL-STD-130 compliance requirements.

To learn more about the IUID Verification Report watch this 1-minute video.

What is a Virtual IUID?

There are certain special situations where the application of an IUID label is inappropriate. Maybe there is not enough space on the asset – or the IUID Label will get in the way or negatively affect the operation of the asset.

For whatever reason, a Virtual IUID does not have the label actually attached to the asset. However, the government still needs to maintain the accountability and keep track of the asset. This is when a Virtual IUID comes into play and allows the reporting of the asset to the IUID Registry without a physical IUID label marking the asset.

Watch this quick video to learn more about Virtual IUIDs.

Does an IUID Label have to contain the phrase “Property of US Government”?

IUID labels do not need to contain the phrase “Property of US Government” — but it is not a problem if they do. Obviously, IUID labels have to comply to MIL-STD-130 and there is nothing in that standard about marking the asset as US Government property. But, if your contract asks for it, or if it makes sense to add that to your label there should not be a problem with doing that.

Here is a 1-minute video to learn more.

How do you deal with Parent Child relationships when reporting to the IUID Registry?

A common question that we get from time to time is how to handle parent child relationships when reporting to the IUID Registry. It’s not unusual for there to be a kit, or a main assembly, that has its own unique IUID and furthermore, the kit also contains components, or subordinate components, that are required to have their own IUID that need to be marked and reported as well.

In this situation, the Marking requirement is the same as always and you will apply a label to each of the unique assets — everything that needs an IUID. But, during the IUID Reporting process you will need to report the parent-child relationships. Meaning, that you will need to document the main kit as the parent and then the sub-components as the children accordingly.

To learn more watch this quick video.