Building Competitive Advantage
With Design Chain Knowledge
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| Building Competitive Advantage With Design Chain Knowledge |
Welcome to the February 2006 Design Chain Associates E-mail Newsletter!
If you've received this newsletter, are not on the DCA mailing list and would like to be, please sign up.
Recent survey results, along with frantic phone calls we and our partners are getting, confirm that there is still a lot of work to do and companies starting right now are about 18 months too late. We asked some similar questions of the DCA newsletter distribution list in January and, while we're still analyzing the results, we are finding that our mailing list is ahead of the more general electronics industry population reflected in the study we did in December with Electronics Supply & Manufacturing.
But there's no rest for the weary. At this point certain key items, beyond simply converting current products to RoHS compliant, remain:
Your company is well on its way to compliance (we hope). But are you covering all the bases with your current program? What's changed in the legal landscape? What solutions have been identified? What should you be doing that you are not or that could be done more effectively and efficiently?
This is a logical next step from our 2005 seminar series> With a great deal of new material and targeted at the company going through the compliance process, this seminar is a must-attend for executive, program leaders, and practitioners alike. After training well over three thousand people from well over a thousand companies and consulting to many electronics OEMs both large and small, we give you insights and perspective unobtainable anywhere else.
Actual comments from attendees at the California seminars held in February include:
To learn more about Thriving in a RoHS/WEEE Environment and sign up visit the seminar website today! The current seminar schedule is
Michael Kirschner has published a short and to-the-point article in this month's Circuits Assembly magazine on the issues that are still outstanding with both obtaining and understanding material disclosures from your component and material suppliers. From what materials need to be disclosed and why, to why handheld XRF is not "due diligence", to whether IPC1752 has value, this wide-ranging and typically opinionated piece has receive rave reviews from readers. What do you think? Let us know!
IPC/JEDEC has a very compelling conference program for Santa Clara this year. Wednesday's program starts off with an update on EU RoHS by Steve Andrews of the UK Department of Trade and Industry and a TAC member; Steve and his team at the DTI have been a great asset to, and champion for, the electronics industry as the most available of all the TAC members and EU member states to help us understand and deal with the RoHS and WEEE directives.
Thursday's program starts off with a presentation by Michael Kirschner of DCA on what is going on around the rest of the world (as well as a bit on the EU). We're in good company with a host of interesting presentations inbetween and after as well. Sign up for the conference here.
Michael Kirschner co-chairs this exciting one-day conference in San Jose with Bruce Rayner, Editorial Director of Electronics Supply & Manufacturing magazine. Part of the D2M Conference and co-located with the Embedded Systems Conference, this conference is a must-attend for executive management as well as the implementers of RoHS. Here are some highlights of what you can expect:
Interested in exhibiting? There will be plenty of time to interact with the decision-makers who attend this conference. Click here for more information and a great deal, or contact Michael Kirschner.
China: This continues to evolve. Promulgation is expected this month, which means it will go in to effect in February, 2007. Testing at the homogenous material level will be required of products in the catalogue...but only by Chinese labs! Mike Kirschner gave a presentation on this at the NEDA RoHS Summit in San Jose last month. You can download it here. Things have even changed since then. See above for information on the "Green Day" Conference, colocated with the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose on April 5; if you're interested in China RoHS you will not want to miss it!
Japan: While the current legislation is simply a marking requirement (see DCA's Japan RoHS page), the future of Japanese legislation holds in store something that is perhaps akin to the EU's Energy-using Products directive. Japan is decidedly against material restrictions as driven by the European Union. This will be reported on more extensively as time goes on in the DCA Intelligence newsletter.
Boston - TURI February 28, 2006: The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) Implementing Lead-Free Electronics Workshop Westborough, MA RoHS Compliance Planning and Strategies Ken Stanvick discusses the Strategic Business Response to RoHS Compliance.
Atlanta - USPTO March 2-3, 2006: China's Impact on Intellectual Property: Understanding the New Realities Within a Global Economy The United States Patent & Trademark Office has asked DCA to participate in a China-focused intellectual property (IP) "roadshow" to educate U.S. businesses about intellectual property issues in China. The program will feature speakers from the U.S. and Chinese IP-related agencies, U.S. companies, and U.S. and Chinese lawyers representing U.S. companies. Tom Valliere represents DCA in a high-tech break-out session on day 2 of this exciting program. We understand it's filled up, but for what it's worth (it is free!), sign up here and keep your eyes out for future events.
February 9, 2006: Are Two Standards Better Than One? Electronic Business. Those involved with ECD are quick to point out the standard does not compete with IPC-1752. “ECD is an open-source Excel-based version of 1752,” explained Michael Kirschner, president of San Francisco-based consulting company Design Chain Associates.
February 8, 2006: Content Declaration May Hurt IP ElectronicNews. ...many component suppliers are getting nervous about sending complete materials content information to their manufacturing customers. If they reveal everything contained in their component, they may be giving away their intellectual property (IP).
February 1, 2006: Full Disclosure Circuits Assembly. Mike Kirschner explains what the RoHS disclosure requirements REALLY are, what the challenges are, and how to address them (hint: handheld XRF is not the answer!) in this very well received and insightful article.
February 1, 2006: Still a long way to go Electronics Supply & Manufacturing. With five months before the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive goes into effect, results from a survey conducted by Electronics Supply & Manufacturing and Design Chain Associates indicate that many companies will not meet the July 1 deadline.
February 1, 2006: Gear Up Electronics Supply & Manufacturing. Ecodesign is about to rock your world. A raft of new environmental regulations in Europe, Japan, China and parts of North America is forcing fundamental changes on the electronics supply chain, though industry sources say the process will take years to play out.
January 10, 2006: China to postpone RoHS legislation Green Supply Line. Co-authored with a legal team from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, this article is based on a conversation we had with Mr. Huang Jianzhong of China's Ministry of Information Industry regarding the material restriction, testing, and labeling law commonly known as "China RoHS".
December 1, 2005: RoHS Challenges Facing Design Process Avnet Advantage December 2005. For design engineers, component supply is only one aspect of preparing products for lead-free production. A number of production-related challenges are also part of the re-design process. “Some of their traditional design software systems or component selection software will have to be upgraded,” says Ken Stanvick, senior vice president at Design Chain Associates, a San Francisco-based consulting firm that specializes in the design aspects of the conversion to RoHS-compliant products.
We value your feedback and insights on the topics in this newsletter and others. You can contact us toll-free at the number below, or simply reply to this e-mail.
Best Regards,
Michael Kirschner