RoHS Compliance in Six Weeks An Enventure Case Study Enventure enables leading telecommunications equipment manufacturer achieve RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) compliance in 6 weeks. Provides comprehensive due diligence, data collection, reporting and technical analysis to facilitate a speedy compliance process effectively and efficiently.
About the Client The Client is a leading manufacturer of hardware products and software platforms that enable wireless infrastructure solutions for Telecommunication, Aerospace and Defense applications. The Client designs and develops world class equipment that delivers high speed communication for large telecommunication providers across the globe. Its major focus areas include Broadband home networking, Transport and termination & Complete conferencing services - including voice, video and IP data conferencing. Business Need The Client s established European markets turned challenging once the RoHS directive was made mandatory by the European Union. The customers in the European market began to demand for compliance declarations and supporting data, as part of the Product Declaration Statement. Additionally the Client s manufacturing and engineering teams needed PCB manufacturing process information for all board level components to ensure compatibility with a lead free soldering process. Despite having flexibility in the internal systems, the Client s attempts at completing the data collection and verification process went futile. The following issues made the compliance effort difficult at the Client s end: Manufacturers lacked the required information Suppliers were difficult to contact and extract information from Information was shared with the client as per the vendors' format Client s sources had other priorities due to which the data collection progress was extremely slow Based on an evaluation of overall effort required, the Client assessed that it would take their internal resources no less than nine months to complete the data collection work. By then the RoHS deadline would have been missed and their sales in the European market would have deteriorated massively. The solution available was to let the compliance task be taken over by specialists who could assure on time completion of the compliance process.
Why Enventure? The task required experienced component engineers and compliance experts who could scan through every item on the Client s Bills of Material (BOMs), analyze the components that required detailed information from the manufacturers/ suppliers to comply with the RoHS directive, procure the Certificate of Compliance (CoC) and complete the documentation within the stipulated time frame. The Client required an experienced compliance solutions company that could cover their supply base of over 300 manufacturers located across the world. The Client also needed a skilled team of component engineers who could complete the project in 8 weeks. After a rigorous evaluation process the Client chose Enventure to be its trusted compliance service provider. The below mentioned competencies helped Enventure leverage the need gap for the Client: Experience in compliance services for over a decade Wide coverage of components Core competence in component engineering and RoHS compliance Ability to meet the deadline Lower costs of data collection Customized reporting systems Compatibility of data deliverable with Clients Agile PLM system Assurance of data validity The Solution At the start of the project Enventure was provided with the Client s Bills of Materials (BOM). The component engineering team at Enventure analyzed each BOM and identified the compliance status of each part, along with complete homogeneous material information. Each part was also reviewed for process compatibility with non-leaded manufacturing. All compliance parameters were captured and validated through a comprehensive data collection process and a series of logic checks. In cases where the information could not be sourced from manufacturer s website Enventure contacted the manufacturer via phone and e-mail to source the required RoHS related information. For the non-compliant parts, substitute compliant parts were identified, which were 'Form-Fit-Function' equivalent, which ensured there was no threat to product continuity. A dedicated Enventure program manager was assigned to the Client from the start to the end of the project. The program manager monitored the project progress, set priorities, flagged abnormalities and provided regular updates to the Client. Enabling continuous and transparent communication between Enventure and the Client, was one of the core responsibilities of the program manager. This further helped Enventure strengthen its process efficiency.
The Benefits Return on Investment (ROI): The Client managed to avoid the cost of hiring additional resources and completed the project ahead of the impending RoHS deadline. The overall costs of data collection associated with compliance worked out to be less than 40% of the Clients initial internal estimates. Regulatory Compliance: In spite of a challenging 8 week deadline, the project was completed 2 weeks before the stipulated deadline, ensuring that the Client was compliant to EU laws, much ahead of time. Customer Needs Met: The Client was able to provide a product level Certificate of Compliance to its customers as demanded. This helped the Client strengthen its position in the marketplace and also positively impact its existing customer relationships. Competitive Edge: Since some of the Clients competitors were not RoHS compliant within the deadline, several companies provided the Client a "Preferred Vendor" status. Audit Trail: The Client received comprehensive material composition data from Enventure, which was then loaded into their PLM system. This RoHS documentation enabled the Client to build an audit trail that would serve as proof of due diligence, which is critical in case of inspection by RoHS enforcement authorities. Uninterrupted Manufacturing: Components that could not handle high temperature PCB processes were identified to the manufacturing and engineering teams. This enabled them to initiate impact analysis and develop solutions to continue manufacturing uninterrupted, utilizing alternate components or with minor process modifications. Conclusion Enventure's team of experienced engineers and compliance experts successfully enabled the Client to be RoHS compliant within 6 weeks (2 weeks ahead of stipulated time) with 40% lesser costs incurred on data collection. Thus, leveraging Enventure's domain expertise helped the Client to strengthen its foothold in the market and gain substantial competitive advantage.
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