EuP is driving design for compliance

The European Union’s Energy Using Products (EuP) directive from the European Union (EU) is pushing electronics manufacturers into adopting design-for-compliance strategies. The EuP became law in the EU in 2005, and member states must transpose this directive into national law in 2007. Some claim the EuP will have a greater effect on the electronics industry than the EU’s RoHS directive.

The EuP applies only to products that sell more than 200,000 units in the EU. The products must have a significant environmental impact and present a significant potential for improvement. Further, the implementing measures must not have a “significant negative impact” on the product price or performance, and the implementation must also not have a negative impact on the company’s ability to compete. At first, the EU countries are expected to focus on computers and consumer electronics as well as household products – such as refrigerators, washers and dryers – that consume significant energy.

The objective of the EuP is to bring improvements in the energy efficiency of energy-using products throughout their lifecycle. Its focus is the design stage, since that is where the potential energy use is determined for the product. “This directive extends the provisions of RoHS and WEEE and further influences the design of electronic products by introducing measures such as energy consumption and waste generation,” says Tom Maurer, global director of high tech and electronics at UGS Corp., a Plano, Texas company that specializes in product lifecycle management (PLM). “The design process is important because 80 percent of all environmental impact decisions are made in the conceptual design stages of a product.”

Much of the attention in complying with RoHS focused on collecting data and reporting, most of which was done after the product has already been designed. With EuP, however, the focus shifts to design and PLM. “When we look at compliance, we look at design for compliance, and that rings with PLM,” says Maurer. “In the design stage, companies have to look at energy consumption requirements and then the PLM system becomes a collection point for the data that will be required.”

Maurer notes that PLM tools can help manufacturers put their compliance measures into place. “We look at the energy consumption requirements of a product and the PLM system becomes the collection point,” says Maurer. “We look at all of environmental requirements as a timeline and we use building blocks to put compliance in place. We then get the materials information from the suppliers.” He notes that the materials information is can be transferred from suppliers in RosettaNet standards to automate the collection process.