Guest Blogger: Gregory Redick, President, Potomac Redan Jack and the Barcode This summer my wife and I will be escorted by our paleontologist son to Colorado and Utah for a dig in search of fossils dating back to the Jurassic period. Jack is hoping he'll be lucky and find something of a carnivore variety.....he really likes the meat eaters. Jack could say Brachiosaurus before he could say milk and is constantly educating us with all manner of facts related to prehistoric creatures. Jack is seven. Brachiosaurus At maybe 3, most definitely by 4, Jack understood the bunch of lines on the back of the toy box represented an answer to a question. The UPC barcode represented data. He understood taking a toy over to a device on a column at Target, holding it up and hearing a beep gave him data to answer dad's question; how much is it? With that data an informed decision could be made about whether he'd grin out of the store with it or if he had to find something else in the price range we agreed on as we walked in the door. At a very young age, my son innately understood the power of data. UPC Symbol In late 2001, I was called in to Michael Wynne's office, the then Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. In that meeting I was given the responsibility for writing what became DoD's Item Unique Identification (IUID) policy. I retired from the US Air Force in 2006 and its now 2013. In 2001, the impetus for IUID was data. In 2003, when IUID became DOD policy, it was about data. In 2013, the need for IUID is still about data. In the future, improving the use of automated identification and data capture technologies and IUID will still be about data. There are clearly forces at work in the world keeping me tied to these issues. Over time I've had some insights; opportunities to see a much bigger picture and gain perspective I didn't have standing in front of Secretary Wynne's desk. When I was asked to write a blog, the worth of sharing some of that perspective became clear. In this and future posts, I'll try to share those insights and perspectives. My guess is that if you're reading this you already have an idea about what IUID is and how the 2D data matrix barcode is integral to the policy. That being my assumption, I'll not give the IUID 101 pitch here. You can find that at http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/pdi/uid/index.html. Instead, I'd tell you that the idea for being able to uniquely identify stuff in the DoD inventory really, really was born of the reasons you'll read there. Really. Not being able to find inventory and the need to have data about the stuff in the inventory drove the early conversations with Secretary Wynne. Notice I wrote "data." IUID is not a barcode policy. At its most basic, IUID policy simply directs that a unique identifier be added to the marking already on pretty much everything we purchase. Think about it. Most everything manufactured and sold today has some sort of marking or product identification. The more complex, the more likely the item will have detailed information with part number, serial number and some sort of identification of who made the thing. All IUID policy requires then is the addition of a unique identifier much like the social security number we all have that uniquely identifies you from me from Jack. The addition of that identifier would then be the foundation for associating data about the thing with the thing. As the policy was crafted it became clear, leveraging information manufacturers already placed on items they made and kept track of was the most logical way to create the unique identifier. Combining existing information guaranteed uniqueness without having to create a new bureaucratic infrastructure and we took pains to ensure the policy was written such that manufacturers wouldn't have to change existing business processes for how they kept track of part and serial numbers (Constructs 1 & 2). Remember; part number, serial number and manufacturer identification are data elements already part of the identification process. What was new was the requirement those data elements be combined or "concatenated" and encoded in a barcode. (Before working this I can honestly say the term concatenated was not part of my vocabulary.) The 2D data matrix barcode became part of the policy to drive improvements in how the data was collected. That's it. IUID policy requires a unique identifier in a barcode on stuff where the data elements already largely exist. Data Matrix Symbol with Explanation of Data Contents Wait a second, if that's it, why all the hue and cry? Why am I even writing this blog? Why do manufacturers claim it will drive wholesale changes to engineering drawings? Why isn't this part of everyday practice? After all, it's been 10 years since giving Secretary Wynne my final policy draft for signature. Why? Because change is hard. People mostly hate change. Often they don't understand it or only hear bits and pieces and form opinions without all the information they should have. Change is just plain hard. I'll try addressing this topic some other time. IUID and the use of a barcode fundamentally represent a way of accessing data about stuff in the DoD inventory that had not existed before across the department. At 4, my young paleontologist understood that the barcode on the Giganotosaurus (bigger than T-Rex carnivore) toy gave him data he needed to help dad make an informed decision. I'm pretty certain Jack didn't think about it the same way, but he innately understood there was data there and that data would help get him what he wanted. Jack takes access to data for granted and will grow up in the world never knowing it wasn't always that way. Gregory Redick is President of Potomic Redan, a firm he started specializing in DoD matters related to supply chain management, technology transition, acquisition and contracting. A 21 year veteran of the U.S. Air Force Greg had command responsibilities and served in Afganastan. While on the Pentagon staff of the Honorable Michael Wynne 's he served as technical advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics (AT&L) as a Military Staff Analyst in the Office of Defense Procurement & Acquisition Policy. In that capacity he was the principal architect of DoD's Item Unique IDentification (IUID) policy affecting nearly every new and legacy asset in the DoD inventory. Greg's last posting was as Commander, Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) Teterboro, NJ. Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) Teterboro, NJ
