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WAWF and UID Registry Overview

dod 1What is a WAWF? Or a UID Registry? If you supply product to the Department of Defense, then you know that supplying identification data of your products is a big part of the compliance process. What follows is an overview of the data you must submit, and the ways to do it.

The Wide Area Workflow (WAWF) is a secure web-based system for electronic invoicing, receipt and acceptance. WAWF creates a virtual folder to combine the three documents the military requires from you in order for you to receive payment for your products – the contract, the invoice, and the Receiving Report.

The WAWF application lets you submit invoices, government inspection, and acceptance documents electronically. It provides the technology for Government contractors and authorized DoD personnel to generate, capture, and process receipt and payment-related documentation, via interactive Web-based applications. Authorized DoD users are notified of pending actions by e-mail and are presented with a collection of documents required to process the contracting or financial action.

The UID Registry captures and stores all UID information. The UID Registry is populated as new items are acquired, or as legacy items are assigned UIDs. The UID Registry is maintained by the Defense Logistics Information Service (DLIS) to allow the DoD to gain increased visibility into their vast network of assets. In order to comply with the DoD mandate for UID you must submit all UID information to the UID registry.

UID REGISTRY DATA ELEMENTS

A UID is a system of  uniquely identifying parts and products. It is composed of a numbering system, the Unique Item Identifier (UII) that guarantees global uniqueness, as well as a method for permanently marking the number on an item using a Data Matrix barcode. The major components that make up the UII number are usually a cage code, a part number, and a serial number.

Submitting UIDs to the UID Registry requires several pieces of data for each marked item in addition to contract and shipment numbers, the item number, product identifier, and unit cost:

  • UID Type (Construct 1 or 2)
  • Entity Identifier (such as CAGE) of company assigning the UID
  • IAC (Issuing Agency Code) which controls the Entity ID
  • Part Number (Construct 2 only)
  • Serial Number
  • Fully constructed UID

Items that have a procurement cost of more than $5000 are generally required to have UID markings. Other conditions for UID marking include:

  • Serially Managed Items
  • Mission Critical Items
  • Controlled Inventory Items
  • Items Needing Permanent Identification

The guidelines above are general. If you are required to mark items with a UID, the relevant DFARS clauses will be spelled out in your contract.

There are 3 ways to submit items to the UID registry:

  1. Direct Submission – Allows you to securely submit computer files containing your UID information via the internet.
  2. Wide Area Workflow Submission – the Wide Area Workflow system can now accept UID data along with receiving reports and documents. The wide area workflow system will then forward on all UID data to the UID registry.
  3. UID Registry Website – The UID registry website allows you to type in UID data directly. This process is usually very cumbersome, time consuming, and error-prone, but it can be used effectively in cases of extremely low volume UID shipments.

Manual data entry to the WAWF and UID registry is time consuming and can often introduce data entry errors. Reducing the processing time with electronic  submittal and approval is not only faster, but you will see an improved acceptance rate for government UID registry submittals.

We have the software that can help with creating the labels, marking your product, and uploading data. For example, we offer a software package called idWorx! that  is the ideal tool for uploading all of that data. idWorks is a database for UID collection used for creating UID, RFID, and MSL labels and for submitting the data from those labels to the WAWF and UID registry.

In addition, we are hosting our popular seminar “Demystify DoD Labeling Standards” that explains not only the WAWF and UID registry, but all of the other factors involved in complying to labeling mandates. To find out more about our seminar, or to register, click here.