Impact of RoHS on Manufacturing

The RoHS directive and its many counterparts developing around the globe are having a profound impact on the electronics industry. OEM's are feeling a great deal of pressure, from legal responsibility, expended resources and product quality. But of course the the ripples reach far beyond the OEM to all vendors along the supply chain. As OEM's gather documentation on the compliance of their products, component manufacturers are asked to provide statements of compliance at the very least and analytical test data in some cases. Logically, the component manufacturers are in turn requiring similar verification of compliance from their suppliers on down to the raw materials providers. It is also very likely that other industries outside the electronics umbrella will be affected as suppliers begin to phase out non-compliant products replacing them with new compliant inventory.

Legal impact of the RoHS directive

Producers whose products are found to be non-compliant will be subject to fines and other severe penalties even to the point of being prohibited from doing business in the EU. Since the RoHS directive applies to "homogenous material" that is to say, materials of uniform composition throughout that cannot be manually broken down into smaller parts, OEM's must maintain a number of documents to verify compliance should their products come under the scrutiny of the governing authorities. A blanket statement may suffice for the consumer but the authorities will require substantiation which can come in many forms. There are two significant ways to show evidence of compliance. The most common and easiest to obtain is a supplier statement of compliance, however this must be provided on the part level and not merely as a generic statement for all materials supplied. In fact many OEM's will require statements for each item on the Bill of Materials (BOM) used to produce the components they purchase. However, if a component is suspect for any reason, OEM's will require analysis from product testing to certify its compliance; the second most common form of documentation. This may be done by the supplier or the OEM if the supplier is not willing. Suppliers who are not willing to provide compliant product or provide test data risk loosing their European market share.

Impact of the RoHS directive on company resources

Producers are spending a great deal of money and man hours ensuring their products are compliant. Countless hours are spent verifying component and raw materials compliance; still more time is devoted to organizing, filing and maintaining records of compliance. The added expense of testing and acquiring analysis places an enormous burden on electronics manufacturers as well as the cost of researching and keeping current on the directives and their amendments or even consultant costs for some. Maintaining inventory and replacing non-compliant components with those that are compliant can be time consuming and daunting task often requiring producers to do a complete design overhauls on some products.

Impact of the RoHS directive on product quality

Perhaps the most challenging of all the hurdles RoHS presents is the issue of quality. Some of the hazardous substances are in essential components and reworking them can compromise effectiveness. Some of the lead free soldering supplies for example require higher working temperatures taxing the circuit boards and may also have problems with lifting and whiskering making them more difficult to work with than their lead based counterparts. Not surprisingly, limiting fire retardant choices edges in on product safety requirements. While new alternatives are being developed, bridging the gap between the compliance deadline and new product availability is problematic.