If you use Mil Specs and Standards, you’ve seen those FSC Codes — The 4 character classification codes. What are they and how do you use them? This is a question many folks have. So today, let’s review this government standards classification system and see if we can get any benefit from it.
Back in the day, there were no computers and no internet. Standards users depended on paper catalogs to help them identify and get the standards they needed. For government contract work, there were 3 separate catalogs issued under the title Department of Defense Index of Specifications and Standards. One volume was ordered by the document number, one was in alphabetical order by title, and the third was by the FSC code.
FSC stands for Federal Supply Classification. It was developed in order to sort documents by topic in a way to support the government acquisition process. It is akin to the Federal Supply Groups used to classify the many contracts available with the Federal government. Having a section of the catalog organized by this code system was very helpful to both procurement officers and government contractors.
FSC Codes still provide a useful tool for identifying Mil Specs and Standards. These codes are a series of 4-character numbers (or letters or a combination of both). The first two digits signify a general topic area. Take a look at our Document Center Overview Page for the many FSC Codes to review these areas. From here you can drill down into the specific topic that you’re interested in.
Let’s say that you manufacture electronic components. You’ll head to the overview page for FSC Group 59, Electrical and Electronic Equipment Components. Here you can see there are FSC numbers for things like solenoids, microcircuits, and communication equipment. Click on the topic you’re interested in and see all the Mil Specs and Standards on that area. Here’s the page for the documents on Semiconductor Devices and Associated Equipment.
One thing that you will notice is that most of the documents are government publications. Only a relatively few industry standards have been adopted for government contract work. And because the documents are in numerical order, you may have some trouble figuring out which standard is appropriate for your situation. We advise doing a search (control f) on the page and looking for additional keywords once you’re on one of these FSC Code pages. Click on the document you want, and you’ll go to the order page with all the details.
There is another way to use FSC Codes. Let’s say you’ve looked up MIL-PRF-19500/313 on the Document Center website. But it’s not exactly what you’re looking for. You’ll notice that the link to the FSC page for 5961 is included in the bibliographic information on this specification’s page. Click on the link, and do a page search (control f) for Transistor, NPN, Silicon, Low Power. Now you have 5 different documents highlighted, all on this topic.
When industry documents have been adopted by the Department of Defense, Document Center includes the FSC number included in the adoption on the document page as well. So you may be able to review both DoD publications by FSC number and even industry documents by ICS code if available.
Finding the right standard can be a challenge. Document Center helps you use the various tools available. It’s just another way we’re working hard to be your Standards Experts!