Chris Waghorn, Manager, National Codifications Bureau.
By Chris Waghorn
12 December 2007
Did you know there's an organisation within the NZDF which doesn’t carry a gun, is staffed entirely by civilians, regularly talks to the Russians, the Dutch, the Greeks, and a raft of other countries and yet makes the critical difference between a war fighter being able to fulfil their task or sitting back at base with nowhere to go?
Who are we
That organisation is the New Zealand National Codification Bureau (NZNCB) which has been around since 1969. Now part of the Joint Logistics Service Organistion (JLSO) in Trentham, the bureau is a small group of 15 civilians who undertake the sometimes detailed and painstaking, but always vital, task of ensuring that all of the NZDF’s equipment is properly codified before it hits the shelves.
The NZNCB also represents the New Zealand Defence Force within the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) which controls the entire NATO Codification System (NCS) through a NATO group called the Allied Committee 135 (AC/135). This in turn, provides unique item identifiers for everything military, from socks to C130 propellers. Within the AC/135 system there are currently 56 Codification Bureaux, each working both within their own country and with each other on a day to day basis.
What is the NATO Codification System
The NATO Codification System was invented just after the Second World War to help the US military keep track of its equipment (at that time, the US military had four Services, multiple recording systems and not a knowingly compatible bit of kit between them). Nowadays, it is an essential tool for modern armed forces around the world, with all NATO and many non-NATO countries, including the Russian Federation, Singapore (and Afghanistan in the near future), using the system. Several multinational organisations, such as Rolls Royce and General Electric, are also starting to rely on the system, which could become a world wide standard for industry over time. The NCS, built up over 50 years, allows organisations and countries, faced with a barrage of information and technical details, a unique way to control the plethora of ways in which an item can be identified, that currently no other system can offer.
What do we do
The NZNCB has two major roles. On the one hand it “codifies” (i.e assigns a unique number to) military items manufactured in New Zealand, whether they are supplied to the NZDF or are being exported to another NCS member country. On the other, it works with the NCB of the overseas countries from which the NZDF purchases to identify the unique identifiers, so that the items can be recorded and managed in our SAP system. So, when a soldier needs socks he won’t get a LAV carburettor – even if the individual manufacturer’s part number is the same for both items. The same principle applies if the required stock is a firing pin for an armourer to repair a weapon bought from Germany, or a C130 propeller purchased from the USA or a module for a radar on board HMNZS ROTOITI, installed by Tenix, as she starts her work-up.
In all cases, as long as the correct item has been physically purchased, and the store person takes that item off the shelf, then the whole system will revolve around the unique nature of the codified identity and ensure that the user gets what they want.
The JLSO and Tomorrow
As part of the Joint Logistics Service Organisation (JLSO), the NZNCB works with purchasers, relationship managers, contracts teams and fleet managers from the three Services, to ensure that equipment providers continue to meet our needs. The NZNCB is a critical component of the Defence Force. The NZNCB will be part of the NZDF for as long as there is a need to be able to uniquely identify an item that is needed to help the NZDF do its job, both at home or anywhere abroad, be it alone or in company with an allied nation’s defence forces.
Should it ever come to the point where the world is such a peaceful place that the military are no longer needed, and the last person to leave the NZDF has to switch out the light, you can guarantee that that light will have been codified by the NZNCB!
Ends
Chris Waghorn is the Manager of the New Zealand National Codification Bureau. Any queries about the NZNCB can be directed to NZNCB@xtra.co.nz