If you are associated with a government entity, you are probably familiar with the term
UID or Unique Item Identifier, but you may wonder why this standard or technology is so important to the Department of Defense (DOD). When items are labeled or marked with an UID it allows for that item to be placed on the UID Registry. How does the UID registry help the DOD? The UID registry allows the DOD to see detailed information of the wide network of assets that the DOD owns. This allows for acquisition, registry, and repair to be done more efficiently and easily. Since many DOD offices are constantly changing, implementing UID makes it simpler to find and discover assets.
What is required for a business to become
UID compliant? There are five basic components needed in order to become UID compliant:
- Your business will need to get on the UID registry.
- You need software in order to generate and validate a UID label.
- To mark products with UID labels, you can use a barcode printer to print labels yourself or utilize a company that pre-prints UID labels or the information can be embedded directly into the metal on the product through a process called direct part marking.
- The DOD has standards for media that is acceptable to use for UID labels. These materials are typically a synthetic material that has been approved and tested by the materials manufacturer to meet the UID standards.
- A barcode verifier is a good product to have to check that the information encoded in the barcode is correct and to grade the readability of the barcode.
UID is here to stay and in order to be on a DOD contract it is necessary to meet UID compliance.
