Tag: FSN Federal Stock Number

FSN stands for Federal Stock Number which is a codification system employed by the US Federal Government from 1955 to 1974 before it was replaced by National Stock Number (NSN). This codification system was designed for the standardization and simplification of the cataloguing of the items that the Department of Defense used in lieu of the previous ineffective cataloguing systems.

The Federal Stock number consisted of 11 digits. The first four digits indicated the FSCG (Federal Supply Classification Group) code which related the particular item to the FSG (Federal Supply Group) and FSC (Federal Supply Classification) of similar types of items. The rest seven digits provided a serial number for the unique item which was called FIIN (Federal Item Identification Number)

Army-Navy Mutations Board is considered to be the maiden attempt for creating an inter-service system which was responsible for procuring common items for Army, Marine Corps. and Navy. It functioned from 1940 to 1942 and remained out of function for some bureaucratic reasons until 1946 when it was renamed as Defense Mutations Board. This board created the Cataloguing Agency in 1947 for controlling the Joint Army-Navy Catalog System. This Cataloguing Agency for the first time started to use FSN in 1949, though the other systems were still functioning.  With the Defense Cataloging And Standardization Act (Public Law 82-436) on July 1, 1952, the first centralized defense procurement was approved. In 1957 the first Federal Catalog was created in which the items were listed as per their FSN. Finally on September, 1974 FSN was outdated by National Stock Number (NSN).