DOD allows use of EPC tags to meet RFID requirements

Suppliers to the U.S. Department of Defense may now use Electronic Product Code (EPC) tags to comply with the department’s request to integrate RFID into supply shipments by 2007. This new capability is the result of the EPCglobal board of governors recently ratification of a revision of the tag data standard.

The revision incorporates the Defense Department’s Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code and the Department of Defense Activity Address Code (DODAAC), enabling the department’s 60,000 suppliers who use CAGE or DODAAC to use those codes to comply with the agency’s request to apply RFID tags on all department deliveries by January 2007. The DOD’s goal is to ensure the development of worldwide, interoperable standards that address the global supply chain.

“The approval of the DoD Tag Data Construct as an EPC standard is a critical step for the Department of Defense as we implement RFID in our supply chain,” says Alan Estevez, assistant deputy under secretary of defense for supply chain integration.

Representatives of the Defense Department have worked directly with EPCglobal’s Fast Moving Consumer Goods Business Action Group since August 2004 on the revision, holding weekly teleconferences and in-person meetings every quarter as they hammered out the details.