BNC (bureau national de codification)

BNC is the French abbreviation for bureau national de codification. In English it is the National Codification Bureau, or NCB. The bureau is the national authority that applies and maintains the NATO Codification System, the standard method for identifying, classifying and cataloguing items of supply, within a given country.

In Canada, the Department of National Defence (DND) is the National Codification Bureau. Federal documents and solicitations almost always use the English abbreviation NCB, so suppliers will usually meet the concept under that name even when the French term BNC appears in bilingual material. NATO's official terminology database, NATOTerm, holds NATO terminology in both English and French.

How the BNC fits into the NATO Codification System

The NATO Codification System gives every item of supply a standardized identity so that participating nations can describe, catalogue and exchange materiel in the same way. Each country runs its own national bureau to apply that system. The bureau receives item information, assigns or confirms the identification, and keeps the catalogue record current.

The related terms below appear together in defence procurement documents:

• NCB: National Codification Bureau. The French equivalent is BNC.
• NSN: NATO Stock Number, the standardized materiel identification number.
• CGCS: Canadian Government Cataloguing System, Canada's national implementation.
• Technical data: the item information a supplier provides so the bureau can identify and catalogue what is being supplied.

Canada's cataloguing system and the NSN

Canada's national system is the Canadian Government Cataloguing System. The Treasury Board's former standard, TBITS 25: Materiel Coding, stated that the Canadian system adopted the Canadian component of the NATO Codification System, was tailored to Canadian requirements, and was administered by DND's Directorate of Cataloguing and Identification.

The same standard specified the NATO Stock Number as the standard materiel-assets code for federal departmental asset-management systems. It also required the NATO-based coding system for new federal materiel-coding systems. The result is that a single identification scheme links defence cataloguing and wider federal materiel management.

The NATO codification clause in DND solicitations

The bureau's role shows up in tender documents. A DND request for proposals on CanadaBuys includes a section titled “North Atlantic Treaty Organization Codification – Data Requirements.” The solicitation identifies DND as Canada's National Codification Bureau and requires the contractor to provide technical data sufficient for DND to catalogue the goods being supplied. You can read the wording in the published solicitation document.

The requirement is tied to the contractor's deliverables. It is most relevant where a contract supplies equipment, parts, components or other materiel that must be identified in the NATO and Canadian cataloguing system.

BNC is not a tender classification code

Suppliers sometimes confuse codification with the classification used to describe tenders. CanadaBuys uses the UNSPSC to classify goods and services in tender notices, and its guidance on finding and using UNSPSC codes explains how to search with them. UNSPSC is a procurement classification system. The BNC, or NCB, belongs to the NATO and defence materiel-cataloguing system, and its codes identify individual items of supply rather than categories of purchase.

What a BNC requirement means for a supplier

If a DND solicitation includes a NATO codification data clause, treat it as a contract deliverable. Read the clause closely and note the technical data, item-identification information and cataloguing documentation it asks for, along with the required format and the stated deadlines. Each solicitation sets its own documents, format and timing, so the clause in the bid document is the authority.

Bid teams supplying materiel to DND should confirm early that the manufacturer or source can supply the item data the clause calls for. Planning for this at the proposal stage avoids a gap between what was promised and what the bureau needs to catalogue the goods.