TYPES OF MATERIAL To  satisfy  the  requirements  of  material  reporting and accounting, the Navy divides material into five categories:  (1)  equipment,  (2)  equipage,  (3)  repair  parts, (4) consumable supplies, and (5) services. We’ll explain each one in the next paragraphs. Equipment is any fictional electronic, ordnance, hull, mechanical, or electrical unit that is operated singly or as a component of a system or subsystem and that is identified  by  a  Component  Identification  Descrip- tion/Allowance  Parts  List  (CID/APL).  Examples  of equipment are turbines, pumps, and electric motors. Equipage is an item of a durable nature that is not altered or consumed in use. The allowance of equipage usually is determined on an individual ship basis and is contained   in   the   Allowance   Parts   Lists   (APLs), Allowance  Equipage  Lists  (AELs),  or  other  authoriza- tion issued by commands, bureaus, or offices. Equipage items differ from equipment in that they are usually portable.  Certain  items  of  equipage  are  designated “controlled  equipage”  and  require  increased  manage- ment control for the following reasons: l l l l High unit cost Vulnerability  to  pilferage Essentiality  to  the  ship’s  mission Personnel  safety NAVSUPPub 485, appendix II, lists items designated as  controlled  equipage.  Those  items  requiring  custodial signatures  are  identified  by  asterisks. A repair part is any item that appears in an APL, a manufacturer’s  instruction  book,  technical  manual,  or  a similar parts list. Consumable materials such as gaskets, which  have  an  equipment  application,  are  also considered  repair  parts. Consumable   supplies   are   administrative   and housekeeping  items,  general-purpose  hardware, common tools, or any other item not specifically defined as equipage or repair parts. Services are nonmaterial requirements such as equipment rental,  commercial  telephone,  pilotage,  and  tug  hire. IDENTIFICATION  OF  MATERIAL Rarely do any two persons see the same details of the same object, much less describe them in the same words. This need for a brief, accurate means to identify one specific item of material led to the Federal Catalog System presently in use throughout the DOD and civil agencies of the government. This system requires that only  one  identification  number  be  assigned  to  a  specific item of material used by and carried under centralized inventory control of any civil or military agency of the Federal  Government.  The  Federal  Catalog  System includes the requirement to name, describe, classify, and number all items, and to publish catalogs and stock and identification  lists. NATIONAL STOCK NUMBERS The national stock number (NSN) consists of 13 digits   and   is   the   common   language   of   material identification. The first four digits of the NSN make up the  Federal  Supply  Classification  (FSC),  which  has  two elements: group and class. The FSC consists of 76 groups, some of which are shown in the following list. NAVSUP P-485 contains a complete list of assigned groups. GROUP TITLE 31 Bearings 43 Pumps and Compressors 48 Valves 59 Electrical and Electronic System Components 79 Cleaning  Supplies The remaining nine digits of the NSN make up the national item identification number (NIIN). The NIIN consists  of  a  two-digit  NCB  (National  Codification Bureau) code and seven digits, which, in conjunction with the NCB code, uniquely identifies each NSN item in  the  Federal  supply  distribution  system.  For  example: 5-3