MIL-STD-130N standard as per the UID Compliance

What is Item Unique Identification (IUID)?

The Item Unique Identification (IUID) system plays a critical role in the identification and classification of items that are to be submitted to the Department of Defense (DoD).  Treated as a universal method of parts identification by the DoD, the IUID helps in locating, controlling and valuing all the defense related qualifying assets. IUID requirements criteria are now integrated in the DoD financial improvement and audit readiness plans.

As per the UID Compliance norms, the IUID of items is mandated to be marked with a non erasable 2-dimensional data matrix for each qualifying item. A globally unique and unambiguous Unique Item Identifier (UII) is constructed to be encoded in the IUID data matrix. As the IUID marking is machine-readable, there is minimal chance of human error. The acquisition records and inventory is also improved.  Apart from easy identification of items as per the UID Compliance setting, the IUID marking also helps accelerate the receipt and acceptance process, thereby making it easy for the DoD to submit payment to its vendors at appropriate time without making any further delay. The UID compliance has mandated all defense items to be registered with the IUID registry.

Criteria for submitting in the IUID Registry:

• Before registering with the IUID Registry, All the government manufacturing activities as well as commercial manufacturers are mandated to be registered with the Central Contractor Registration (CRR) system.
• All users are required to register themselves to have login credential access rights of the IUID Registry. But for that, you need to be an U.S. Government employee or a Contractor with approval from the DoD Program Manager to obtain the login access to the IUID Registry.
• For those who plan to conduct business with Government Furnished Property, submitting detailed info to the IUID system is a must.

As per the UID compliance, of the several standards used in IUID marking, the MIL STD 130 is the most fundamental item identification marking standard. Of late, certain changes were made to the original MIL STD 130. On December 17th 2007, a new version of the standard (MIL-STD-130N) was officially released. As per the new MIL-STD-130N, specific criteria have been issued for marking requirements and identification methods of military items produced, stored, stocked, and issued by the Department of Defense.

Rules of the new MIL-STD-130N standard:

• Henceforth, the UID will be restricted to 50 characters only.
• For item identification marking, the MIL-STD-130N standard has criteria for both free text and machine-readable information (MRI) marking.
• Now labels which include name plates, data plates, and ID plates can be made up of metallic or non-metallic materials.
• The standard clearly states that a label may be of any similar or can also be of different material than that of the item to which it is affixed. This basically means that label of one material can be affixed to the identified item of another material.
• The verification is defined in the new MIL-STD-130N standard as “Confirmation by examination, and provisions of objective evidence, that the item identification marking requirements specified in this standard and the associated contract have been fulfilled.”
• A contractual warranty between the Government and the contractor expressing the nature, usefulness, or condition of the items in terms of hours, days, months, number of operations has to be according to the MIL-STD-130N standard.