IPC - Product Compliance Requires Supply Chain Transparency
Autor: Marcelo Chirai | Publicado: 2017-01-19T21:17:00-02:00


Feed: IPC Blog
Posted on: quarta-feira, 9 de março de 2016 11:29
Author: IPC
Subject: Product Compliance Requires Supply Chain Transparency






By Tord Dennis, WSP USA

Changes
 to the RoHS, REACH, and conflict minerals regulations make the need for
 supply chain transparency more crucial than ever. The European Court of
 Justice (ECJ) ruled in 2015 that the 0.1% threshold for
 notifying SVHCs ( Substances of Very High Concern) in articles applies 
to “each of the articles incorporated as a component of a complex 
product” and not to the entire article. Companies that file with the SEC
 must annually determine and report the sources
 of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold (3TG) in their products under 
section 1502 of the U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer 
Protection Act. Suppliers cannot afford to claim “confidentiality” or 
ignorance to the material and substance make-up of
 the products they sell that become part of another company’s product. 
Leary of public backlash and/or legal action, some OEMs are taking 
drastic measures such as discontinuing business with suppliers who do 
not give them the information they need in a timely
 manner.

Full
 material declaration (FMD) is quickly becoming the “gold standard” data
 requirement for an OEM to accurately assess the risk of restricted 
materials in a product. This means that suppliers must deliver
 the complete material and substance breakdown of their 
component/product in a manner that puts the least amount of impact on 
their core business activities and enables the OEM to collect and 
aggregate similar information from other suppliers. IPC has developed
 a family of standards dedicated to this task. The IPC-175x family of 
standards (e.g., IPC-1752A for material and substance declaration and 
IPC-1755 for conflict minerals) establishes a standard reporting format 
for data exchange between supply chain participants.
 It defines the information that most companies need to collect in order
 to prove compliance. It also specifies an XML-schema which enables more
 efficient and effective exchange of data by enterprise data systems.

Automating
 the exchange of FMD data is made simpler with the adoption of the 
IPC-175x family of standards but other critical elements must be in 
place to achieve success. The OEM needs to build a product stewardship
 process that enables them to efficiently collect and analyze the FMD 
data from their supply chain. This means they must have executive level 
support and a well thought out implementation plan for enterprise 
software to manage this data. The OEM and the supplier
 must commit to being partners in this venture; “no data means no 
business” for all parties involved. A statement must be included in 
supplier contracts that require documentation pursuant to any 
government’s legal requirements regarding restricted materials
 and substances.

To
 learn more, attend technical conference session,&nbsp;S03 at IPC APEX EXPO. I
 will present a paper titled, “Best Practices for Product Environmental 
Data Collection,” on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 2:00 pm. To
 learn more or register for IPC APEX EXPO, visit 
www.ipcapexexpo.org.





Filed under: Conflict Minerals,
Environment, Health and Safety,
Government Relations,
IPC, 
Legislation, Regulations,
Standards Tagged: 
conflict minerals, 
European Court of Justice, 
full material declaration, 
IPC APEX EXPO, IPC-1752A, 
IPC-1755, IPC-175X family of standards,
REACH, 
ROHS, SVHC 






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