Warranty Tracking of Serialized Items (DFARS Case 2009-D018)

Summary:

DCN 20110608 includes a final rule to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement a policy memorandum of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics dated February 6, 2007, which required definition of the requirements to track warranties for Item Unique Identification-required items in the DoD Item Unique Identification Registry. This final rule stresses that the enforcement of warranties is essential to the effectiveness and efficiency of DoD's material readiness.

Supplementary Information:

I.  Background

The Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics issued a policy memorandum dated February 6, 2007, which instructed the Director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy to define the requirements to track warranties for Item Unique Identification-required items in the DoD Item Unique Identification Registry. The capability to track warranties will significantly enhance the ability of DoD to--

•  Identify and enforce warranties;

•  Ensure sufficient durations of warranties for specific goods; and

•  Realize improved material readiness.

DoD issued a proposed rule in the Federal Register at 75 FR 52917 on August 30, 2010, to address the requirement to more effectively track warranties for Item Unique Identification items. The comment period closed October 29, 2010.

II. Public Comment

One respondent submitted comments to the proposed rule, which are discussed here.

III. Additional Technical Changes Required

During the final rule development, DoD restructured the layout of the rule to reduce burden to contractors and to facilitate data capture. This change required moving the tables from the clause at 252.246-7006, Warranty Tracking of Serialized Items, to 246.710-70, Warranty attachment. This will enable data capture through the use of the warranty attachments. DoD has posted schema to the DPAP/Program Development and Implementation Web site at http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/pdi/eb/gfp.html, to facilitate this process.

A summary of the required technical changes is here.

Dates:

The Effective Date for this final rule is 8 June 2011.

Click here to read the entire Federal Register notice for this rule.