How to Read the National Stock Numbers on Lions Industries Products

Every item Lions Industries for the Blind makes for the federal supply system carries a National Stock Number, and each number does a specific job. Once you can read one, a line on a requisition stops being a string of digits and becomes a precise description of what will arrive on your dock. This post walks through the numbers we publish, using our own products as the examples.

What the thirteen digits are made of

A National Stock Number has thirteen digits, grouped four, two, three, four. The first four are the Federal Supply Class, which sorts an item in with similar goods. The next two are a country code. The last seven are the item number, the part that points to one particular thing in the catalog. Together, the country code and the item number identify the item itself, and the class tells you which family it belongs to.

Take our 6.5 by 10 inch cloth mailing bag, 8105-00-174-0836. The class is 8105, the supply class for bags and sacks. The 00 is the country code. The 174-0836 is the item number for that bag at that size. A different size gets a different item number, even though every one of our mailing bags stays in class 8105.

The structure also works as a typo check. If you meant to order a bag and the first four digits on your form aren't the bag class, something was keyed wrong. Two items can look nearly identical in a list, and a stray digit in the item number lands you on a different size entirely.

Our numbers, product by product

Here is every item on our products list, with the number to use when you order it.

• Cloth mailing bags: nine sizes, each with its own number in class 8105, running from 8105-00-174-0836 to 8105-00-290-3360. Issued by the bundle, BD/50 or BD/100 depending on size.
• Small arms cleaning swabs: 1005-00-912-4248 for .223 caliber (M16 rifle, 5.56mm) and 1005-00-288-3565 for .30 caliber (7.62mm, M240 machine gun). Package of 1,000.
• Maintenance manual case: 7520-00-559-9618. Each.
• OCP USAF name tape 8455-00-NIB-0153 and OCP USAF service tape 8455-00-NIB-0154. Each.
• USAF engraved plastic name tag: 8455-00-NIB-0141. Each.
• USMC name and service tapes: Desert MARPAT 8455-01-475-5316 and Woodland MARPAT 8455-01-475-5330. Each, or as a set of two name tapes and one service tape.
• Skid board: 1670-01-342-5961. Each.

You'll see 00 as the country code in most of those and 01 in the Marine tapes and the skid board. Both are part of the published numbers, so key them as written. If you're curious what a particular class covers, your supply office can tell you.

The three numbers with letters in them

Three of our numbers don't look like the rest: 8455-00-NIB-0153, 8455-00-NIB-0154 and 8455-00-NIB-0141. Letters sit where you'd expect digits in the item number. Those are the published numbers for the OCP name tape, the OCP service tape and the engraved name tag, so order them exactly as printed, letters included. Don't try to convert them to digits, and don't drop the letters when you key them into a form.

Units of issue: how much arrives per line

The stock number tells you what you're ordering. The unit of issue tells you how much one line gets you. BD means bundle, so BD/50 is a bundle of 50. Our larger mailing bags, 5.5 by 14, 6.5 by 10, 7.5 by 18 and 8 by 10 inches, are BD/50. The smaller sizes, 3 by 4, 3 by 5, 4 by 9, 4.5 by 8 and 6 by 9 inches, are BD/100. Swabs ship as a package of 1,000. The manual case, the tapes, the name tag and the skid board are each.

That difference matters when you're keying a quantity. One line of the 3 by 4 inch bag is a bundle of 100 bags, and one line of swabs is a thousand. Check the unit of issue before you type the quantity, so a thousand swabs don't surprise you when you expected a handful.

Who each item is made for

Each product is made for a particular buying office. The mailing bags and the manual case are manufactured for the General Services Administration. The swabs are for DLA Land & Maritime in Columbus, Ohio. The Air Force tapes and name tag are for Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. The Marine tapes are for DLA Troop Support in Philadelphia, and the skid board is for DLA Aviation. How your own unit orders any of these is a question for your supply office, which knows its channels better than we do.

If a number on your requisition doesn't match anything above, or you want to confirm a size or unit of issue before you order, call us at (252) 523-1019, Monday through Thursday, 7 AM to 5:30 PM. The products page lists each item with its number alongside.