Common Sense in RoHS Compliance: 'Good Corporate Citizenship' is on every company's event horizon

摘要

As the price of gasoline rises to over USD3 a gallon in parts of the USA, the prices of many other commodities and services continue to increase. Wire and cable manufacturers attempt to stay competitive by reducing expenses, consolidating vendors and scaling down in-house inventory. Many are laying off workers or encouraging early retirement. Some of you may have already felt the effects of these ongoing changes. While trying to find the edge on business, satisfying customer demands is difficult, but essential to remain profitable. In addition to customer and supplier issues, government regulations put pressure on manufacturing. With more focus on European environmental directives like Restriction on use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), many firms fine tune their supply chain and impose stringent requirements on suppliers. Compliance efforts are costly, but if executed strategically, do not sacrifice profitability. Has your company evaluated what it can do to increase the bottom line using strategic environmental approaches? In this article, a common sense approach to RoHS/WEEE compliance is directed toward small-to-medium size firms. You can meet the needs of customer RoHS and WEEE demands without lowering profitability or adding significant cost.