Material Control Code (MCC) — Navy Supply Reference

A Material Control Code (MCC) is a single alphabetic character that, in the words of the governing manual, is assigned by the inventory manager to segregate items into more manageable groups — fast, medium, or slow movers — or to relate to field activities special reporting and/or control requirements. In practice that means the MCC tags an item by demand velocity or by a special category such as a field-level or depot-level repairable, lot/serial-number-reportable ordnance, or a perishable-subsistence item. In Navy supply the MCC is one of the Logistics Management Codes read alongside the Cognizance Symbol (COG) on an item record. Together with the Special Material Identification Code (SMIC) and the Item Management Code (IMC), the COG and MCC make up the Navy-unique management data carried with the National Stock Number. It is defined in NAVSUP P-485 Volume II, Appendix 9 (Logistics Management Codes), Part I.

At a glance

• What it is: A single alphabetic code assigned by the inventory manager to segregate items into more manageable groups (fast, medium, or slow movers) or to relate special reporting and/or control requirements to field activities.
• Length and format: A single alphabetic character.
• Assigned by: The cognizant Navy inventory manager / inventory control point (NAVSUP WSS, NAVSEA, CESO, SSPO, and others, under NAVSUP).
• Regulatory source: Naval Supply Procedures (NAVSUP P-485), Volume II — Supply Appendices, Appendix 9 (Logistics Management Codes), Part I: Material Control Codes (MCC).
• Where it appears: Record position 6 of the Stock Status Balance Card, rp 7 and/or 61 of the Change Notice, rp 73 of the Transaction Detail Card, and rp 76 of the Transaction Report Card.
• Read alongside: The Cognizance Symbol (COG), Special Material Identification Code (SMIC), and Item Management Code (IMC) — the Navy-unique management-data set.
• How to resolve a value: Use the table below; confirm a specific NSN's current assignment against the Navy master listing, since the inventory manager owns and can revise it.

What the Material Control Code is

The MCC answers the question "how is this item managed?" It is a one-character tag, set by the manager who has cognizance of the item, that places the item into a management grouping. Two kinds of grouping dominate:

1. Demand velocity. Items are segregated as fast, medium, or slow movers, which drives stockage levels, review frequency, and inventory decisions. A fast mover is reviewed and stocked differently from a slow mover or a one-time buy.
2. Special reporting and control. Some MCC values designate items that need particular handling — most notably repairables, distinguished as field-level (repaired at the using activity / intermediate level) or depot-level (returned to a depot for repair), along with other special-program or special-control categories.

Because the inventory manager assigns the MCC, it is a management decision, not an intrinsic property of the item — and it can change. An item's velocity classification shifts as demand changes; a part's repairable treatment can be revised. The MCC on a current record reflects the manager's current treatment of that item.

How it is used

The MCC does its work as a management overlay on the item record, read together with the rest of the Navy management data:

• Stockage and review. Demand-velocity grouping feeds the rules that decide what to stock, how much, and how often to review it — fast movers and slow movers are managed on different cadences.
• Repairable routing. The field-level / depot-level repairable distinction tells an activity what to do with an unserviceable asset: repair it locally or retrograde it to a depot. This pairs with the Supply Condition Code (which states the item's serviceability) to drive the retrograde decision.
• Special control and reporting. Special-control MCC values trigger the reporting or handling those items require, relating field activities to the manager's special requirements.
• Read with the COG and the rest of the management data. On a Navy item record, the MCC sits beside the COG (stores account/funding + manager), the Acquisition Advice Code (how the item is acquired), and the unit of issue (how it is ordered). Reading them together gives the full management picture before a requisition.

Complete code table

The table below reproduces the Material Control Code values from NAVSUP P-485 Volume II, Appendix 9 (Logistics Management Codes), Part I — Material Control Codes (MCC), with each code's definition and the cognizant inventory control point / inventory manager the manual lists for it. The Navy code set deliberately omits the letters I and O (avoided because they are easily confused with the digits 1 and 0), so the assigned codes run A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

Worked example

A Navy activity holds an unserviceable part and pulls its item record. The record shows a Supply Condition Code indicating the part is unserviceable but reparable, and a Material Control Code that designates the item a depot-level repairable.

Reading the two together: the condition code says the part is reparable, and the MCC says repair happens at a depot, not locally. So the activity does not condemn or attempt to fix the part in place — it processes it for retrograde to the depot under the manager's repairable program. Had the MCC instead designated a field-level repairable, the activity would repair it at the using/intermediate level; had it designated a slow-moving consumable, there would be no repairable action at all — the unserviceable would be dispositioned and a replacement requisitioned. The MCC is what turns a generic "unserviceable but reparable" into a specific management action.

Common errors and gotchas

• Treating the MCC as fixed. It is an inventory-manager assignment and can change as demand or management treatment changes; re-check it rather than assuming an old value still holds.
• Confusing field-level and depot-level repairables. The distinction drives whether an unserviceable is repaired locally or retrograded to a depot — getting it wrong misroutes the asset.
• Reading the MCC in isolation. It is one of several management-data codes; its meaning is operational only when read with the COG, the Supply Condition Code, and the rest of the record.
• Assuming a universal letter table. The specific letter assignments are manager-maintained and can differ or be revised; confirm against the current NAVSUP P-485 / Navy master listing.
• Confusing the MCC with other one-character codes. It is distinct from the Controlled Inventory Item Code, the Item Management Code, and other single-character fields; the MCC specifically conveys demand velocity and special management/control treatment.

Related codes and cross-references

• Navy Cognizance Symbols (COG) — the companion management-data code: stores account/funding plus the cognizant inventory manager.
• Supply Condition Codes (SCC) — the serviceability classification read with the MCC to drive repairable retrograde decisions.
• Acquisition Advice Codes (AAC) — how the item is acquired, read alongside the MCC on the item record.
• Unit of Issue (U/I) — how the item is requisitioned and priced.
• WebFLIS / FLIS — the catalog data behind the National Stock Number the MCC is carried with.

Authoritative references

• Naval Supply Procedures, NAVSUP Publication 485 (NAVSUP P-485), Volume II, Appendix 9, Part I. The governing source for the Material Control Code table.
• Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP). The Navy supply management policy authority; see navsup.navy.mil.

Last verified

This reference was last verified on 2026-06-22 against NAVSUP P-485 Volume II (Rev 9, 14 Apr 2026), Appendix 9, Part I — Material Control Codes (internal page A9-11). The complete letter-by-letter table, the cognizant ICP/IM column, the two-part definitions for codes E and F, and the record-position facts are transcribed verbatim from that appendix (resolved with two agreeing table-aware PDF extractions after an earlier draft mis-bound the rows). Because the inventory manager owns and may revise an item's assignment, confirm any specific NSN's current MCC against the Navy master listing rather than a cached table. To suggest a correction, use the site's correction path.