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LaserCard Automated Manifest System |
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 LaserCard Automated Manifest System
Operation Desert Shield/Storm placed a severe strain on the Department of Defense (DoD) supply system with the rapid deployment of over 500,000 troops to the Persian Gulf. With the surge of arriving large containers sea vans, the material management system could not accurately identify the contents of the sea vans.
The DoD, through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), contracted with Information Spectrum, Inc., to develop an automated manifest system utilizing optical memory cards to resolve the problem of in-transit identification (for critical DoD supplies) of the contents of each sea van. A solution was sought that would provide in-transit visibility, expedite receipt processing, prioritize container processing, facilitate
discrepancy reporting, minimize impact on existing systems, and achieve a portable permanent record of transactions. The LaserCard® was selected for this application for its following features:
1. High data capacity: The 2.8 megabyte optical stripe holds all required manifest information and may be updated as needed. Each manifest record is about 50 to 60 kilobytes of data; so one optical card can be used for many different sea vans.
2. Low unit cost: One card can be reused up to 50 times, affording a potential cost of about 10 cents a card per use.
3. Existing Infrastructure: The entire U.S. Army distribution and receiving system, including all active Army field sites, has been outfitted with the ability to read and write optical cards. These portable receiving offices have been dropped by parachute into war zones, including Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. All Army centers in Germany, Korea, Japan, etc., are equipped as well. The U.S. Marine Corp is now implementing the system and the Navy is expected to follow.
4. Durability: The card is attached to the outside of the shipping container as part of the label. The card is exposed to the elements, potentially for months prior to being read. Environmental testing by the Army proved to them that the optical card was unmatched in durability for this application. With a failure rate of virtually zero, this is truly, as stated by Eugene Bransfield, DLA Program Manager, the most durable and reliable media seen in over thirty years of DoD experience.
5. Compatibility: The ability of the LaserCard device driver allows the card to be used as a normal logical drive under several generations of Windows operating systems making the card simple to integrate and use. The DLA database downloads standard files for each shipment, which are directly copied to the card in real time as the shipments are being prepared.
6. Speed of use: The card is immediately writeable when inserted into a reader/writer, requiring no lag time to initialize or spin-up. The full data set is recorded in a few seconds, which is a timecritical process to get the card attached to each pallet during the depot loading sequence.
7. Reduced Error Rates in Supply Processing: Error rates are reduced by automatically expediting discrepancy reports thereby minimizing labor-intensive operations. Since 1993, more than 750,000 optical memory cards OMC, and approximately 2,000 LaserCard OMC drives have been put into circulation for use in shipping goods all over the globe. The AMS program has won many government awards, including the Vice-Presidental Golden Hammer Award, for cutting
logistics costs over 67% using the optical card system. This program has been in successful use for over ten years, consistently performing in some of the worlds worst environments. In 2003, the DLA renewed its contract with Information Spectrum, Inc., for up to 79,000 cards per year, ensuring the continued success of this groundbreaking program.
facts at a Glance
User Defense Logistics Agency
Application Shipping, receiving, pallet identification Automated Manifest System
Technology Optical memory card
Benefits - Automatically identify contents in cargo containers, slashed receipt processing time 78%, withstand harsh environments, immune to electro magnetic fields, improved security of shipments, ease of use in variety of environments
LaserCard is a registered trademark of Drexler Technology Corporation. |
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