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Department of
Defense Compliance
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is the most far-reaching logistics and distribution supply chain in the world. In order to optimize operational efficiencies using new technology, the DoD effected a policy change in July, 2004 that directly impacted the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and the more than 45,000 commercial suppliers to the DoD. Via a Policy Memorandum, the DoD directed the DLA to complete a deliberate staged roll out of passive RFID technology to all 16 continental U.S. (CONUS) and 7 outside-continental U.S. (OCONUS) sites by December 31, 2007.
Psion Teklogix, a strategic GlobeRanger partner, was
awarded the prime contract from the DLA to deploy GlobeRanger’s
iMotion platform as the competitively selected Edgeware
to manage the entire DLA passive RFID network, add new
business functions, and connect to the DLA’s legacy
system of record. All sixteen CONUS sites were installed,
tested and certified in two months from the start of
the award on June 30, 2006. When completed, the DLA
will have deployed the world’s largest enterprise-scale
interconnected and managed network of sensors and passive
RFID technology.
Projects with the uniformed services have been put into production, and multiple pilots successfully completed.
The 45,000 plus commercial suppliers to the DoD are subject to new (2006), specific Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS) clauses regarding certain classes of goods that, upon contract negotiation or contract renewal, require the supplier to attach properly formatted passive RFID tags to cases and pallets and to electronically submit shipment information to the DoD. Today, the iMotion platform is deployed by an increasing number of suppliers, providing an automated system that 1) receives information from the customers system of record (WMS, SCS, ERP, etc.) and generates a serialized list of properly encoded passive RFID tags; 2) manages the tag printing and verification processes; 3) submits the complete government-required EDI transaction; 4) provides the event completion notification to the supplier’s system of record; 5) can manage the DoD EDI transaction documentation archival requirement; 6) and offer relevant, actionable information to personnel managing the transportation segment of their business.
The DoD has many years of positive experience and known significant ROI using active RFID. Ultimately, the deployment of passive RFID will be on larger, broader, deeper scale eventually passing the current active RFID deployments both in terms of number of tags, monies spent, and benefits gained. The integration of both passive RFID and active RFID in the DoD will provide significant long-term benefits not only in money saved and efficiencies gained but most importantly, by increasing visibility in the entire supply chain, from the manufacturer to the warfighter.
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