| CPT Victor T. Dunn | CPT Sarah C. Fields | CPT Oscar D. Lozano-Aguila |
| CPT Andrew J. Morgan | CPT Michael A. Ridgway | CPT Brent A. Walter |
What has the Army done since Operation Desert Storm when logisticians were forced to open over half of the 40,000-plus containers shipped to Southwest Asia to determine what was inside, who the contents belonged to, and where the container was going? What steps have been taken to ensure that over 250,000 US Air Force 463L pallets will not be deployed again without documentation, as was the case in the early 1990s?
How will the logistician answer those common questions asked by every commander: "Where is it and when will it be here?" The answer: use automatic identification technology to identify, track and route the materiel to the right destination.
Bar Code Technology
Since Operation Desert Storm, one solution is to eliminate the need for filling out paper work. A logistician can scan a military item like a cashier at a supermarket, for example, to save time and process higher volumes of supplies. This helps ease bottlenecks at supply points and ports of entry. Technology can do the paper work.
The ever-present bar code has done wonders for Army and Department of Defense (DOD) accountability since its beginning in the early 1980s. The bar coding starts at the time of procurement and continues throughout every step of the logistics chain. The bar code ensures accountability from the time a depot receives an item to the receipt and use of the item by the end user. Increased readiness posture is a direct result of bar code usage.
What exactly is a bar code and how does it work? The DOD uses two types: the linear bar code and the two-dimensional bar code. The linear bar code consists of a series of parallel, adjacent bars and spaces. The predetermined width patterns determine what the bars say. Most people are familiar with this linear bar code in the supermarket’s Universal Product Code (UPC). However, in the DOD, Code 39 is the choice for linear bar codes. Code 39 allows for letters, symbols and numbers in a context of about 30 characters. This allows encoding of national stock numbers (NSNs) as well as contract and requisition numbers. For encoding great amounts, the answer is the two-dimensional bar code.
The DOD adopted the Portable Data File (PDF-417) as the standard two-dimensional bar code for logistics applications. PDF-417 can hold 1,850 characters in an area of about 2 by 3 inches. Not only does PDF-417 have greater data capacity, but also built-in redundancy so that a damaged bar code can still be read. A scanner can read as little as one-fourth the size of the original bar code. Also, PDF-417 can store text as well as graphics. This is the case with the new military identification cards for active duty personnel, where the back side contains encoded text data and an encoded photograph.
Accuracy is critical in inventory and logistics systems. Optical scanners may only misread bar codes after nearly three million scans. By comparison, a data entry clerk will make a mistake for every 300 keystrokes. The bar code has increased Army accuracy in accounting procedures.
Optical Memory Card
Another method adopted by the Army to reduce the large amount of paper work traveling with a shipment is the optical memory card. This optical memory can reduce a manifest to a small card that can be read automatically.
The size of a credit card, the optical memory card has more than four megabytes of storage capacity. The card uses the advanced technology of writing and reading with light. In normal use, the optical memory card is written and read by an optical card reader/writer device connected to an IBM-compatible personal computer. The card is inserted into the reader/writer, where a low-power beam of laser light records or reads the data spots.
Used with the Automated Manifest System, the optical memory card reader transfers manifest information from an optical memory card into a local database. The laser reader/writer allows complete processing of a manifest, regardless of size, before the shipment is downloaded from its carrier. Once processed through the reader/writer, the manifest is then inventoried before appropriate action against discrepancies in shortages and overages.
The optical memory card goes undetected by magnetic or electrostatic fields. This helps make the card highly secure. The card can be updated at any time, but the information is not erasable. This ensures cumulative data retrieval of all recorded information. To increase security measures along with the non-erasable measures, the information placed on the memory card can display such features as fingerprints, access codes, and digital photographs.
Any information that can be digitized can be stored on an optical memory card. With capability of storing 1,200 pages of typewritten text, the optical memory card is an exceptional storage medium for large volumes of information.
Radio Frequency Technology
The Army’s goal of Total Asset Visibility has made its presence felt in the supply system through the radio frequency technology system. This system is a configuration of devices designed to track supplies from point of origin to destination. The devices involved in the system are the radio frequency tags, the interrogator, a 486 central processing unit (CPU), and satellite or wire transmission devices.
The tag has a radio receiver/transmitter, microprocessor, and a memory chip. The tag measures roughly 4 inches x 2 inches and can store 128K of data. This tag operates on a radio frequency of 433.92 MHz, comparable to a garage door opener.
The saucer-shaped device called the interrogator weighs 6 pounds, is 12 inches in diameter and 6 inches tall. It emits radio waves at 433.92 MHz, which is the same as the radio frequency tag. The radio wave is transmitted every six seconds and ranges over 600 feet.
The 486 computer, located with the interrogator, transmits the information received from the interrogator. Wire transmission is the preferred way to transmit, but satellite can be used where telephone lines are not developed.
These devices used with the radio frequency tag result in the ability to track supplies electronically. The tag, loaded with an inventory of the cargo, point of origin, destination, and an identification number, is placed on the container. The cargo passes an inspection point where the interrogator reads any tag in range. The tag answers with its identification number and a date/time/group. This information is sent to a US Department of Transportation center in Cambridge, MA. The information is processed into the database, establishing when and where the tag was updated. The interrogator sends information to the transportation center on an hourly basis.
The information is continually updated each time a tag passes an inspection point. The database is closed when the tag passes the final inspection point. The database at the transportation center interfaces with the Army Materiel Command’s Logistics Support Activity through the Total Asset Visibility system, the Logistics Intelligence File, the Global Transportation Network, and a regional server located at US Army Europe.
Operators can consolidate information such as inventories of Sea-Land containers and transfer all of that data onto a radio frequency tag for storage. The operator transfers the data onto a tag with the use of a "burn station" or a tag-docking station. The "burn station" transfers data through the use of radio waves while the tag-docking station transfers data directly through a cable connection. The CPU of the transfer device sends all of the data to Cambridge, MA, and to a regional server in Germany via computer modem or a satellite or commercial telephone lines.
CPUs located at supply support activities (SSAs) can collect data from interrogators at local inspection points and "burn stations" within the SSA. They can also send this data to Cambridge and Germany. The system achieves Total Asset Visibility by maintaining and updating these databases.
Logistician’s Job Easier
The new automated equipment is making the logistician’s job easier. More accurate bar code technology is now being used at all of the Army’s SSAs, cutting processing time dramatically. Radio frequency technology proved a success during Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti.
Soldiers who need to find out where their equipment is or where a part is in the distribution system can track the item on their own computers. With the radio frequency tags, containers and all their contents can now be identified without opening the containers. Large folders of paper manifests are being replaced by a single optical memory card device. The new automatic identification technology significantly decreases the time that supplies need to wait for paper work and identification. Automatic identification technology is a powerful tool that is here to stay. It provides Total Asset Visibility and plays a critical role in reducing the wait for supplies.
About the authors
The authors are Quartermaster graduates of the Combined Logistics Officer Advanced Course 96-11/12 at Fort Lee, Virginia.