Just because it’s called China “RoHS”, don’t assume that it’s like the European Union RoHS. In fact, it’s very different. China RoHS requires extensive material disclosure and has a far broader and more onerous scope, including medical, test and measurement, component, and material products. Michael Kirschner, president of Design Chain Associates, LLC, will present critical information on China RoHS, its requirements, and why you need to take action now to ensure compliance.
What is involved and what should be monitored?
The Restriction on the use of Certain Hazardous Substances Directive introduced by the European Union (EU) expects companies to take all reasonable steps or precautions and exercise all due diligence to ensure compliant products. That’s a tall order and the responsibility lies directly on your shoulders! A good quality system addresses the needs and expectations of the customer and in this case, the expectations of the EU RoHS Directive to ensure compliant products. A solid quality system includes an audit system that provides a company with an effective tool to meet the objectives of the RoHS requirements.
Few things have as much bottom line impact as your supply chain. Typically purchased materials comprise as much as 80% of the cost of goods produced. Mismanagement of this portion of your business can have dire consequences. Conversely, proper management can give you a significant competitive advantage.
Much has been written over the years on proper supply chain management and this is not intended as a tutorial or a repeat of supply chain basics. Rather we will examine the impact to your supply chain due to newly adopted and proposed environmental legislation. In this session we will examine existing business practices and how they must change and adapt to the new regulatory environment. These are not revolutionary changes but rather a continuous evolution of current business practices.
The Waste Electrical And Electronic Equipment Directive commonly referred to as the WEEE Directive places specific obligations upon producers who “put on the market” specific categories of Electronic Equipment on the EU Market. The obligation requires producers to be responsible to establish a recovery and recycling scheme and pay for the recovery and recycling of their products placed on the market. The WEEE Directive producer responsibilities became effective for all included new products placed on the market after August 13, 2005 and all “historical products” put on the market prior to August 13,2005.
The success of any project in your company is highly dependant upon creating a highly skilled and empowered team whose objectives are well defined and are supported by senior management. RoHS and Environmental Compliance project management must be viewed as an ongoing activity that is responsive to evolving governmental and customer requirements.
Environmental Compliance is not a one-time event for your company and your employees. The need to develop ongoing training programs is greater today than it has ever been. We will explore some of the myths and facts you need to be aware of and provide you with an outline of techniques that other successful companies are using today to keep their workforce ahead of the new demands of Environmental Compliance.
Environmental compliance impacts your design chain as well as your supply chain. Compliance to worldwide Environmental Compliance Regulations will have a profound impact on the ability of original equipment manufacturer’s ability to sell products in the global marketplace. Environmental regulations impact design practices, material selection, supply chain, manufacturing, packaging, waste disposal, and documentation requirements.
Design for Environment (DfE) has moved to the forefront of critical elements for new product introduction. Understanding potential business impacts of Environmental Compliance and industry trends for compliance are key elements for successfully managing through the maze of Environmental Regulation. To create a product that is compliant to global environmental regulations requires knowledge of current regulation as well as some insight into future regulations in the works.
Environmental regulations are driving changes to materials and products. For the electronics industry this results in numerous process changes and challenges for the entire supply chain. The risk inherent with new materials and immature processes is uncertain.
This session will focus on the components, PWB, and PWA assembly technologies affected by the various environmental regulations, discuss the risks and considerations of each, and provide some guidance to minimize risk.
RoHS and other current and future environmental regulations require management of substance, and other, attributes through the supply chain that were not previously required. While the infrastructure for this is still not well developed, there are some standards and some best practices.
Few things have as much bottom line impact as your supply chain. Typically purchased materials comprise as much as 80% of the cost of goods produced. Mismanagement of this portion of your business can have dire consequences to your bottom line. Conversely, proper management can give you a significant competitive advantage.
Supply chain management advice is never more than an email or business article away for most of us. While much of this advice is sound, there are practicality and timeliness issues associated with much of it. This presentation will not be a tutorial or delve deeply into theory. It is intended to be a practical guide that examines supply chain and component best practices today and how those processes need to evolve and change to meet the challenges of outsourcing and newly adopted and pending environmental legislation. These are not revolutionary changes but rather a continuous evolution of current business practices.