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EMA Aims for Ease in RoHS/WEEE Compliance
Online staff -- Electronic News, 3/28/2006
Rochester, N.Y.-based EDA tool distributor EMA Design Automation said today it has made the adherence to RoHS/WEEE compliance directives easier by integrating software from Omnify into its EMA engineering data management (EDM) environment.
Manny Marcano, president and CEO of EMA said in a statement, “Integrating Omnify into our EDM solution provides five key capabilities that bolster our compliance by design philosophy, allowing companies of any size to have the power of a full EDM system.”
These capabilities include configuration management, bill of materials (BOM) management, document management, change management and enhanced reporting.
Configuration management allows OEMs to manage data related to all aspects of their products such as electrical, mechanical, and software/firmware items. Due to the level of change and product configurability associated with RoHS compliance, companies need to be able to access and control revisions to all items throughout the entire product structure. EMA EDM said it now encompasses managing data and controlling revision levels on the customer’s entire product.
The BOM management function manages all revisions and understands the lifecycle of a BOM since the RoHS and WEEE requirements affect the entire product. Since the BOM items link directly to active part data, customers can analyze and generate compliance reports from any level or from any version of their BOMs.
The document management function recognizes that it is critical for both RoHS and WEEE initiatives that due diligence is exercised in the collection and storage of supporting documentation. Items such as the component datasheet, certificate of compliance, material declaration, and testing information need to be stored on an individual vendor part number level. In case of an audit, these documents must be quickly and reliably accessible for at least four years. EMA EDM now allows document versioning/vaulting on all documents associated to product or vendor records. Changes made to documents are performed under a user-defined and controlled process.
The change management feature accounts for the fact that changes made to product data usually require validation by all affected parties. EMA EDM provides a controlled change management process that allows users to define product and documentation changes and allow them to vote on the suggested changes. The system handles the automatic routing to users via e-mail and updating of product records when there are changes to products such as part replacements, AVL changes, part number changes, availability, etc. These changes must be captured and performed in an automated fashion.
Finally, when delivering reports to satisfy RoHS and WEEE requirements, the entire product structure must be considered. Reports and analysis must be available at any point in the product development process. With EMA EDM, customers can generate reports from any level of the product structure. The system can also automate the generation and packaging of these reports. Since EDM captures data during product development, these reports can be generated, products can be analyzed, and adjustments can be made at design time.
