LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
Technology has cut processing time by two-thirds for basic military training initial clothing issue.
Using radio frequency identification tags, members of the Air Force Clothing Flight can process a trainee through their first uniform issue in less than an hour.
Before RFID tags were implemented more than a year ago, manual processing approached the three-hour range.
Dispensing materials to 16-20 flights a week, or roughly 1,000 trainees, was a time-consuming and arduous task. For now, time is needed before hand to attach the specialty tags to the garments; the future goal is to save that time by shifting the process entirely to the manufacturers.
According to Ronnie Barney, flight chief, RFID tags are manually attached to all clothing. He explained since manufacturers were already bar coding labels on the garments, it made sense to involve the suppliers in applying the tags.
By getting the manufacturers into the process, the flight has reduced its time spent attaching labels by 25 percent.
"The goal is for the manufacturers to apply RFID labels on every Air Force garment," Mr. Barney said. "As bar code contracts expire or renew, the RFID requirement will be added to the new contracts."
Lackland is the only Recruit Training Center using RFID technology. The flight, a unit of the 37th Logistics Readiness Squadron, is in partnership with the Defense Logistics Agency.
In addition to processing the trainees in a timely fashion, the system also provides an accurate inventory count, initiates orders and provides a tracking system of garments issued to each trainee. In short, RFID has all but eliminated human errors from the equation.
The issuance of garments works like an assembly line. After being given a bar coded inventory sheet with the trainee's information, the trainee goes through each station and receives garments that are placed inside a duffel bag. At the end of the processing line, the duffel bag is placed on a table for scanning.
"The scanners read the bag and determine if there are too many in there, if the sizes are different or if they don't have enough items," said Mr. Barney.
Lynne Carter, deputy flight commander, said every antenna from the RFID tags is read inside the bag when it is scanned, and "we don't have to ask them, 'did you get this?' One of the greatest things about the RFID is it will tell us if we got every trainee."
"We can go into our virtual item manager system and everything we issued to those trainees is built back up (into our inventory)," she said.
Because of the RFID system, Lackland ranks as the best in all Department of Defense recruit centers in inventory control at 99.9 percent. The system is also used for receiving inventory as the flight becomes more automated.
An added feature of the RFID is garments issued to trainees can be tracked for specific size, lot number and manufacturer, and an individual can be notified in the event of a recall.
While Lackland is moving forward with the program, others are casting an envious eye.
"What we're doing is perfecting this technology, and when it's perfected, it will be moved to the other services," said Mr. Barney. "It's been so successful that the other services have been to see our operation and they are ready for it."
And after seeing the system work, not a moment too soon.