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| Subject: Re: MARC in Action (Hawaii) | |
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Author: The MARC is a portable, credit card-sized "smart card" |
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Date Posted: 04:23:38 12/29/02 Sun In reply to: (General Services Administration) 's message, "The USA Govbegantrue multiapplicationJava card pilot the Washington, DC, metropolitan area." on 04:17:20 12/29/02 Sun Smart Cards: Big-Time Punch in a Byte-Sized Package CPT Tanya Arvay CPT Lyle L. Ford CPT J. Frank Melbarejo CPT Arleen E. Tafel CPT Christopher White LT Robert H. Brasington LT Eric D. Lanham The future of logistics automated management is here today in the form of card technology. Imagine being able to track personnel and supplies with the use of a small plastic card. Imagine being able to access financial, personnel and medical records with this card. Imagine being able to access information that would give in-transit visibility of materiel and supplies. Well, smart cards can offer all that. Smart cards are subdivided into two basic groups: these are chip cards, commonly referred to as smart cards, and laser optical cards. The main difference between these two cards is that chip cards are memory cards with artificial intelligence capability, while laser optical cards support "write-once-read-many-times-over" technology. Changes in Card Technology Card technology falls into three basic categories: financial, controlled access, and identification cards. Card technology, originally developed in the early 20th Century, has gone through several changes to arrive at the current smart card design. From 1930 to the 1970s, the old metal "charge-a-plate" was the forerunner to the plastic charge cards in use today. From 1970 to 1973, the American National Standards Institute/International Standards Organization (ANSI/ISO) standardized the plastic credit card and also introduced the first standard for machine-readable cards: magnetic stripes. The 1980s brought further advancement to the magnetic stripe card. During this time, financial-type cards took off with the advent of debit cards, prepaid telephone cards and cash cards. The success of these types of magnetic stripe cards set the stage for a single card that can perform all three functions: financial, controlled access and identification. The private sector developed such an all-purpose card to eliminate the use of various, single transaction cards. The Department of Defense (DOD) began developing its own multi-use cards in the early 1970s. This technology is now available in the Multi-technology Automated Reader Card (MARC), which is an example of a chip card, and in the Optical Memory Card, which is an example of a laser optical card. Both cards will increase the effectiveness of the Army’s overall logistics tracking capability. The MARC is a portable, credit card-sized "smart card" capable of storing and updating personnel data on a particular service member or DOD employee. The MARC utilizes a magnetic stripe, a two-kilobyte (2KB) integrated circuit (IC) chip, and a bar code to update and store data. It holds printed information (including a digital photograph), embossed name and social security number. The combination of all of this makes the MARC card versatile. It can interface with a variety of technologies and systems, from imprinting machines to computer systems that use IC chips as data carriers. The DOD designed the MARC program in response to the many single use, updatable technology programs throughout the DOD. The MARC program is responsible for evaluating the concept of providing a multifunctional, cross-service utility card that satisfies multiple requirements within the DOD for a portable, updatable medium. The MARC program has three primary objectives: Reduce the proliferation of single use, nonstandard automated cards. Examine options for satisfying unmet requirements for updatable information on a portable medium. Provide a technology that bridges the gap between incompatible information systems. The MARC program applies and tests these objectives against field medical care, mobilization and readiness processing, manifesting, food services operations, a composite health care system, and the Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) Regulating and Command and Control Evacuation System (TRANC2ES). The MARC holds data important for soldier readiness, processing, manifesting, personnel accountability, combat medical and dental treatment, battlefield casualty pay documentation and the information to support the approved battlefield functions. The soldier readiness card was developed to interact with standard commercial equipment in order to reduce cost and development time. The MARC was approved and funded by the DOD. The DOD wanted to evaluate the MARC as a prototype system to be used in the following manner: Field Medical Documentation to access the ability of the MARC IC chip to record, revise and transfer medical treatment data across echelons of care in the field for both mass casualty and field outpatient treatment. Mobility/Readiness Processing to evaluate the use of the MARC IC chip to store readiness information such as soldier’s personal, legal, medical and other data that must be current before deployment. Manifesting to access the use of the MARC bar code to create real-time manifest records of military personnel as they board and disembark from aircraft or ships. Accountability to test real-time accountability. Food Service Head Count to evaluate the magnetic stripe on the MARC in order to replace the current paper meal card, as well as the automated collecting and reporting of meal head count data and the ability for the diner to pay by payroll deduction. MARC in Action (Hawaii) The MARC was successfully tested November 1993–February 1994 in a company at Fort Bragg, NC. The cards’ success at the initial site led to further testing in Hawaii. The card was distributed throughout the 25th Infantry Division (Light), US Army Hawaii (USARHAW), 45th Support Group and the 703d Military Intelligence Brigade in October 1994. The MARC was put to the "real test" during the January 1995 deployment of 3,600 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division to Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. The card accounted for personnel readiness by updating and processing key information to the MARC during the preparation for overseas movement (POM). Based on 25th Infantry Division requirements, the MARC program produced two spin-off cards for issuing in Haiti. The first was an access control card for local national employees and the second an access control card for secure areas. After the success of the MARC during Operation Uphold Democracy, Marine Forces-Pacific requested inclusion in the MARC test bed. The card was issued to all Marines in Hawaii in September 1995. The US Marine Corps modified the MARC to serve as a field training record and shipboard accountability card, in addition to the card’s basic design. The DOD funding for the two-year Hawaii MARC card test ended in October 1996. After the success of the MARC, the commander of the 25th Infantry Division and USARHAW decided to continue the program throughout FY97 for division and USARHAW units. The 25th Infantry Division and USARHAW food service chief said the MARC in the dining facility was a success and the Army needed to keep the card. The MARC ends all paperwork associated with the meal cards. Also, the card is needed for deployments to update soldier information during predeployment POM. The only consequence to units that decide to use the MARCs is funding. The cards are funded internally. The 25th Infantry Division and USARHAW soldiers will be the only ones to receive the cards upon inprocessing because of the expense of purchasing the blank MARC cards: $6.00 each. All commands outside the 25th Infantry Division and USARHAW that want to continue using the card must figure out a way to reimburse the 25th Infantry Division for the cost of the card and additional costs. The future of the MARC program within the 25th Infantry Division and USARHAW beyond FY97 is uncertain. Efforts continue to secure funding to expand the MARC program Armywide in FY98. Experimentation and modification of current capabilities also continues. The 25th Infantry Division has replaced the Schofield Barracks, HI, library card with the MARC card, for example. The US Navy is currently testing use of the card as the following: Training record Security badge/access control Installation processing Travel support (orders and advance pay) Morale, welfare and recreation support Recruit processing Recruit dental processing Reserve mobilization Insertion on the Navy Smart Ship (USS Yorktown) The United States Military Academies are developing a cadet smart card. The United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, is interested in adding MARC requirements to support academics. The developers of the MARC are working with the Military Police and Military Intelligence schools to develop a card to integrate into the Prisoner of War Information System (PWIS). A prototype has been developed. If successful, it will be integrated into the MARC system. Overall, the MARC has proven a success. MARC technology is the wave of future for the military. Daily operations will be easier with the card. With the simple swipe of a card, the MARC will cut back on hours of manually processing routine information. The task now is to incorporate MARC technology throughout the armed forces. Another use for smart card technology is tracking and processing supplies from the factory to the foxhole, through the use of the optical memory card contained in the Automated Manifest System (AMS). Automated Manifest System And the Optical Memory Card The AMS is a user-friendly software package designed to operate at different supply points: the depot, central receiving/shipping points (CRSPs), and supply support activities (SSAs). Each of these operations has similar equipment and software packages that complement the other, making them compatible. The AMS hardware consists of an IBM-compatible personal computer, optical memory card reader/writer, bar code reader (BCR), radio frequency tag, tag docking station, and printer. The AMS system outputs several different products such as scannable bar code labels, radio frequency tags, and optical memory cards. The AMS is currently a stand-alone system that is being incorporated into the Standard Army Retail Supply System-Objective (SARSS-O) used at the direct support unit. The AMS is an efficient, cost-effective and compact shipping manifest and database management system that will expedite receipt processing when used properly. The need for AMS arose during evaluations of the logistical problems during Operation Desert Shield/Storm in the early 1990s. Supplies were inadequately manifested. Storage sites had no access or visibility. No inventory control procedures existed. All these logistical problems led to major accountability problems. The General Accounting Office (GAO) cited these accountability problems as the main reason for poor supply distribution and excessive costs. The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) then began a research that developed the AMS. The AMS’s key component for reducing receipt processing is the optical memory card. The size of a typical credit card, the optical memory card provides detailed information on the contents of each multipack or containerized shipment. Each card accompanies its multipack or container to its final destination. The optical memory card accesses and updates the SARSS database, which results in the immediate search and retrieval of high-priority items. The AMS, and specifically the optical memory card, are designed to interface with all the military services’ retail supply systems. This interface enables asset visibility, expedites receipt confirmation, automates the reconciliation process, gives automated reports of discrepancy, and creates issue and packing lists for supported customers. The laser optical memory card has many advantages. The optical memory card can store 2.5 million bytes of information (approximately 1,200 pages of hard copy). It costs only $4.00 per card. Very resilient, the optical memory card can withstand temperatures from -40 to +212 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, it is not affected by severe weather, water or shock damage. The optical memory card also has a protective coating that shields it from magnetic fields, electrostatic, and radio frequency interference. The laser optical memory card has and will continue to increase inventory accuracy along with asset visibility. The optical memory card allows a database to prioritize offloading and issue, which gets high-priority supplies to the unit quicker. This system will eliminate the backlog of processing shipments. Before the AMS, 40 personnel worked three shifts to receive and process receipts from a standard shipment. With the introduction of AMS, four soldiers can complete the same tasks in a single shift. Optical Memory Card in the Field (Bosnia) The following three examples illustrate how advances in card technology have proven their value to the Army’s materiel managers. In April 1996, the 77th Maintenance Company’s Class IX (repair parts) SSA, operating out of Camp Tampa, Bosnia, was fielded the AMS. The AMS can read the credit card-sized three-megabyte (3MB) optical manifest cards attached to the outside of every shipment from the wholesale system. Before AMS, processing parts through the receiving section using the Standard Army Retail Supply System (SARSS-1) was a time-consuming ordeal. The soldier had to take the paper work from each part: two copies stayed with the item and one copy went to the workstation for processing into the SARSS-1 system using Logistics Application of Automated Marking and Reading Symbols (LOGMARS). Dedicated customer parts were marked with the customer’s Department of Defense Activity Address Code (DODAAC) and placed in the customer bin, while authorized stockage list (ASL) replenishment parts that arrived with a SSA document number would be set aside. Once processed into the SARSS-1, the system would either produce a materiel release order (MRO) or a location bin ticket for storage. The AMS’s ability to use the optical manifest card to batch process incoming shipments from the depot cut the time that parts spent in the receiving section of the warehouse in half, saving about 80 manhours of work per week. Given the substantial daily force protection requirements, the optical manifest card’s savings of manhours was an important factor in the success of the 77th’s Class IX mission. Another Management Tool A second important management tool that the optical manifest card gives the materiel manager is the ability to promptly identify any discrepancies in shipments from the wholesale level before these documents are pseudo-receipted into SARSS. The process begins when the manager sets the SARSS parameters so that incoming shipments are not batch-processed, and each receipt must be scanned by the soldiers in the receiving section. Once the optical manifest card is read by the AMS, the AMS creates a file containing the document numbers of all items in the shipment. As the soldiers process the individual parts into the system, the document numbers are automatically removed from this file. Any documents left in the file after the shipment is completely processed are discrepancies. The materiel manager then uses this information to prepare a report of discrepancy, which is sent to the responsible Inventory Control Point/National Inventory Control Point (ICP/NICP). In addition to helping the SARSS manager identify problems with support from the wholesale system, the report of discrepancy greatly reduces the work associated with pseudo-receipts (transportation follow-ups). SARSS pseudo-receipts any D6Ss (document identifier codes for materiel receipt acknowledgement cards from the wholesale level) that have not yet been processed into the system after 45 days from the time wholesale sends its first ship status to the SSA. Working from pseudo-receipts is a very time-consuming process for the Army’s materiel managers. Not only does every pseudo-receipt over $50 result in an inventory adjustment report, but also every pseudo-receipt over $500 must be researched. In addition, SARSS freezes the line associated with the pseudo-receipted document, requiring a physical inventory of the line. Using the report of discrepancy generated by the process of receipting all D6Ss with the optical manifest card, the research time is reduced because the manager does not need to request a document history from the supporting SARSS-2B. In addition to batch-processing and identifying reports of discrepancy in a shipment from the wholesale level, the SARSS will automatically send a transaction to the Logistics Support Agency (LOGSA) (coded TK_) after reading the optical manifest card. This action starts the SSA’s receipt processing time on the Individual Direct Support System Activity Performance Report (IDAPR). In the past, the central receiving point sent the TK_ to LOGSA, and this was fine if the shipment got to the SSA immediately. However, as was the case often in Bosnia, shipments awaited transport from the central receiving point to the SSA for days or even weeks, resulting in the IDAPR not accurately reflecting the true time it took the SSA to process the D6Ss upon receipt. Using the AMS and optical manifest card, the SARSS automatically sends a TK_ for every receipt on the card. The SSA’s TK_ takes precedence over the TK_ from the central receiving point so the IDAPR will accurately reflect the true picture of receipt processing at the SSA. The use of AMS and the optical memory card in the logistics operations of US forces in Bosnia has been vital to the reduction of supply processing time. The optical memory card is a vital tool in moving supplies from the factory to the foxhole. Positive Impact The introduction of card technology into the Army logistics system is having a significant, positive impact on both the consolidation and storage of personnel information and the reduction of order to ship time for supplies. The MARC reduces excess paper work and increases unit readiness, while the optical memory card helps the customer unit receive the correct shipments faster and more efficiently. Smart cards such as the MARC and the laser optical memory card, using integrated circuit chip and laser optical technology, have made great strides in allowing timely and accurate information flow - imperative as Velocity Management moves the force into the 21st Century. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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