Regulations are changing the way electronic components are specified.

New environmental regulations are forcing companies in the electrical and electronic equipment industry to change the way products are designed. With the risks of non-compliance ranging from potential fines to being completely shut out of key markets, manufacturers will need to effectively address these regulations in order to minimize the impact on profit margins and prevent loss of revenue.

Currently, attention is focused on the European Union’s Restrictions on the use of certain Hazardous Substances directive and Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling mandate. Similar regulations and voluntary programs are also being established across the globe in countries such as the U.S., China, Japan and South Korea.

July 2006, the time the RoHS directive takes effect, should, therefore, not be perceived as the compliance “finish line,” rather the beginning of a new era when environmental impact considerations will be integral to product design decisions.

The optimal time to ensure compliance occurs during the initial product design stages. When non-compliant components and assemblies are identified, changes can be made quickly and easily in computer aided design or product lifecycle management applications where the cost to change designs is relatively inexpensive. On the other hand, the costs of compliance increase exponentially once the product advances beyond the prototype phase and moves into full production; where changes may require an engineering change order, field replacement or product recall. The phrase, "design for compliance" has been used to describe the proactive approach to managing compliance in the design phase.

While most companies agree that managing product compliance without a robust information system is not feasible; many companies lack the necessary IT infrastructure to manage the complexity introduced by environmental compliance. Compliance cannot be addressed by merely requiring a compliance certification from suppliers, which is then stored in a database for retrieval. Experience has shown that supplier compliance certificates are often inaccurate due to many factors, including a lack of understanding concerning interpretation of the regulations and the proper reporting of substances at the homogenous material level. These unintentional errors can lead to significant risk for original equipment manufacturers that are ultimately responsible for the compliance of their products.

In order to effectively determine if a product is compliant, various factors must be analyzed and tracked such as material content, substance concentrations and product exemptions. Manufacturers can significantly reduce their risk by requiring suppliers to provide material content information in addition to certificates of compliance. With material data, the substance concentrations can be compared directly with the regulatory requirements to eliminate errors and determine compliance.

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, the analytical approach is much more cost effective than a simple certificate of compliance due to a number of factors. For example, when existing regulations change or new regulations are introduced, the manufacturer can analyze existing data rather than surveying suppliers again. Most importantly, OEMs can eliminate errors, thereby avoiding fines and rework costs.

There are a number of factors to consider when implementing an IT system to manage compliance. In addition to material compliance analysis capabilities, the system should also be able to account for rapidly changing environmental regulations across multiple markets and geographies. Similarly vital is the system’s ability to integrate sourcing and product development information.

Material and part suppliers are key partners in a company’s drive for compliance, since a single non-compliant supplier could cause the product to be non-compliant. The IT infrastructure should expedite the flow of material content information and supplier compliance certificates across the supply chain and provide design engineers the necessary visibility to use this information during all stages of the product development lifecycle. In addition, the application should support links to multiple IT systems within a company since many manufacturers often have product management and supply chain systems that vary by product groups and divisions.

Synapsis Technology has developed a solution that can easily integrate into a company’s existing PLM, CAD and ERP systems while providing a centralized platform to manage compliance. The Environmental Material Aggregation and Reporting System is a sophisticated solution that addresses the analysis, tracking, data collection and reporting needs of an entire organization and provides the visibility that design engineers require to design for compliance.

EMARS helps product development teams assure product compliance starting day one. With EMARS, a design engineer has the ability to confidently select a compliant part or subassembly based on EMARS’ extensive evaluation of its compliance, accounting for multi-sourced components and product exemptions. For example, Table 1 contains compliance information on Part A, which is sourced from three suppliers. Each of the supplier parts has a compliance status that was determined by EMARS from analysis of the material content information provided by each supplier.

The table also shows that the compliance status of Part A is calculated as an aggregate of all of the supplier components for that part and that Part A is compliant for use in a server product but not a consumer product (based on the status for each compliance specification). A design engineer will have similar information available when selecting parts in EMARS. The engineer will know that Part A can be used to design a compliant Server type product for ROHS, but not a consumer product.

Additionally, the Pass with Exemptions status denotes that Part A meets the regulatory requirements by means of a regulatory product exemption such as "lead in solder for server and infrastructure equipment." This is an important capability that helps companies deplete inventory during transition to compliant parts over time as they become commercially available. The enhanced level of compliance visibility at the part or subassembly level will help the design engineer assure that the product meets all the regulatory requirements of the market or geography where the product will be sold.

Companies that are concerned about minimizing the risk and cost of compliance cannot deal with compliance as a tactical problem or a short-term initiative to assure that the product meets ROHS and WEEE. Current and future regulations require long-term investments and the implementation of robust processes and flexible systems that embed regulatory compliance into the fabric of the organization. EMARS is an ideal solution that enables companies to meet existing regulations and sets the framework for staying ahead of the growing and constantly changing environmental regulations.