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Compliance is Becoming a Broad Management Issue
Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor -- Design News, June 14, 2007
As environmental regulations spread around the globe – and domestically throughout the United States – many companies are turning to a broad-based approach to compliance. Many of the leading electronics companies such as component/subassembly providers, EMS providers and OEMs are deploying what’s coming to be known as compliance assurance systems (CAS). “There’s been a lot of interest in environmental compliance for the last five to seven years, and it’s driven primarily by RoHS,’ says Richard Kubin, VP of solutions engineering at E2Open Inc. “Many companies are looking at compliance holistically since it requires validation by quality and regulatory groups. CAS is a more systematic manner to manage those aspects.”
The major electronics companies have been the first to develop compliance assurance systems. “The large organizations have more resources to put into this,” says Kubin. “Companies such as Dell, Apple, TI and Motorola have been very proactive with their corporate directives.”
Kubin notes that developing a CAS is not necessarily expensive. Much of the system is simply a set of dependable procedures to handle compliance data in a standard format so the data so it can be managed effectively. “A compliance assurance system does not mean a huge expense in software or hardware,” says Kubin. “It’s a matter of developing a methodology for keeping track of documents”
He notes that a CAS program also involves design engineers, since it becomes part of the process of designing for manufacturability. “What it means to design engineers is that environmental compliance becomes part of the criteria in parts selection,” says Kubin. “It becomes another element of component qualification.” He notes that environmental regulations have changed the design environment. “It used to be that design engineers wanted to know if the part meets the technical requirements,” says Kubin. “But now they need to know if the part has documentation because there are people responsible for compliance who are interested in liability issues.”
One of the tools for managing documentation for environmental compliance is IPC-1752, a template for delivering compliance information in a standardized format. Kubin has been involved in the development and promotion of IPC-1752 and notes that it is being adopted, but at a slow pace than expected. “Adoption has been steadily increasing, but it has not gone as quickly as some folks would have like,” says Kubin. “But it does provide the industry’s only standard.”
Since environmental compliance is a global issue, there has been some movement to create a global standard for delivering and storing compliance data. “There is some activity at the international level to provide an international standard,” says Kubin. “1752 is being considered.”
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