Assess your readiness for RoHS and WEEE compliance
A companion article to "Lead makes an electronic exit," which we published in our March 2006 issue.
Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 3/1/2006
Steve Brody, manager of compliance engineering at Thermo Electron in Newington, NH, is the chair of his company's WEEE/RoHS Core Team. He's responsible for ensuring the directives are implemented within all Thermo Electron divisions and business units. Thermo Electron produces scientific and laboratory equipment and analytical instruments that are primarily in WEEE Categories 8 and 9 and are currently exempt from RoHS.
| MORE ON RoHS AND WEEE: Lead makes an electronic exit COMMENTARY: Also see these related stories from the T&MW archives: |
- Given that WEEE is only applicable in the EU member states, are you marking only the products that you ship into the EU, or are you marking all of your products?
- Are the WEEE and RoHS Directives understood at all levels within your company? Does senior management understand the risks of noncompliance?
- Does your firm have someone training employees on RoHS?
- If your products are outside the current scope of the RoHS directive, are you planning to make any changes to your current products? Are you bringing them into compliance now, or are you waiting until customer demands force you to make changes?
- If your products are within the scope of RoHS, how are you working with your component suppliers to ensure compliance? Are you working with them to determine compliance and to see what solutions they have to offer? Are you waiting for your suppliers to make their parts compliant with RoHS? Or are you looking for alternative sources?
- Do your suppliers understand the requirements of RoHS?
- How are you verifying your suppliers' RoHS compliance? Are you requesting a signed supplier declaration for each part number? Are you requesting that suppliers have their components and parts tested and then provide you with a copy of the data? Or are you randomly sampling parts on your own?
- Are you confident that your suppliers are asking the same question down through all the lower tiers of their suppliers to ensure that a part is truly RoHS compliant?
- Have you budgeted for RoHS compliance in terms of manpower, redesign efforts, higher cost components?
- Are you a “producer” in WEEE and RoHS terms, or do you only sell through distribution in the EU?
- Are you or your distributor registered or in the process of being registered in each of the EU member states as their laws go into effect?
- Do you have a recycling scheme set up in each country, or are you trying to find a pan-EU recycling scheme?
- How are you internally tracking compliance?
- Are you only concerned with EU WEEE and RoHS, or are you monitoring other environmental legislation around the world, such as China RoHS?
- Which department in your firm is responsible for WEEE and RoHS compliance--engineering, operations, or sourcing?
- Does your firm have an environmental policy statement?
- Does your firm put environmental information online?
