Make every effort to become a green corporate citizen

Related statistics show that at the end of 2005, there were 350 million TV sets, 130 million refrigerators and 170 million washing machines being used in China. In addition, there were 20 million computers and 190 million mobile phones being used in China.

The majority of above household appliance products began to enter households in middle and late 80s of 20th century. Based on lifecycle of 10 – 15 years, since 2003, there are at least 5 million TV sets, 4 million refrigerators and 5 million washing machines discarded as unused in China every year. At present, there are 5 million computers and 10 million mobile phones entering obsoleteness period, whose update speed is much faster than household appliance products. Plus a variety of and huge amount of household appliance products with much faster obsoleteness speed, there are a large amount of discarded electronic products in China every year.

According to preliminary statistics from related organizations, total amount of discarded electronic products added in China every year is 1.11 million tons while total amount of discarded electronic products added in the world every year is over 35 million tons. These discarded electronic products not only waste valuable resources and engery, but also causes serious environment pollution.

To solve increasingly serious effect of discarded electronic products on the environment, European Parliament issued WEEE and RoHS directives at the beginning of 2002. Then, EuP directive (Framework Directive of Ecosystem Design Requirements for Energy Using Products) and REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) was issued. Ministry of Information Industry in China also issued Control and Administration Provisions of Electronic Information Products Pollution and issued Unused Household Appliance Recycling and Handling Administration Provisions.

How should electronic manufacturing and processing enterprises evaluate the effects of these laws and regulations? What actions are they taking to meet these requirements in respect to technology, process and management?

Recognizing the effect of WEEE on EMS enterprises
Flextronics is one of the biggest EMS enterprise in the world and it provides total manufacturing solutions for OEMs. Therefore, both WEEE and RoHS have significant effects on Flextronics. They must solve most problems caused by WEEE/RoHS, thus helping customers meet the requirements in related EC regulations.

“Take the enforcement of WEEE directive as an example. We have a customer that manufactures office equipment and our factories in Europe and Mexico are responsible for manufacturing, repairing and recycling the products for this customer. As we know, in North America and Europe, the operation mode of most office equipment is leasing, so how do we handle products taken back several years later?” said Dr. Shangguan, “Some equipment may be repaired and continue to be used while some equipment may be discarded . We use recycling methods to handle discarded equipment, including material recycling and recycling and re-use of components and subsystems. This is because a machine may be discarded , but there are many expensive parts that can still be used (in general, office equipment is designed based on 10 years lifetime, but a specific model may become obsolete after 2-3 years due to advances in technology). We have provided this service in the factories in Europe and Mexico and some other places for several years. Therefore, Flextronics has accumulated significant experience in this aspect. ”

“At present, the industry has not paid enough attention to WEEE compared to RoHS. Because if RoHS requirements are not met by July 1, 2006 this year, the products can’t enter EC markets while the pressure on product cost caused by WEEE is still relatively invisible.”

“At present, the cost of products is composed of materials, manufacturing, sales, logistics and labor. Now, recycling cost must be added. It will be too late if we only consider this problem after 5 or 10 years!” said Dr. Shangguan, “Why? Because in the long term, the cost of products is determined at the design phase. For example, the more varieties of materials you use at the design phase will make recycling more difficult. In addition, is your product structure designed to be disassembled easily? This directly affects recycling cost.”

Ensuring smooth enforcement of RoHS conformance
According to Dr. Shangguan, Flextronics has performed extensive research and development in respect to RoHS compliance, and developed and applied related technologies as well as certified its factories around the world. Since 2001, Flextronics has established a global development team of first line engineers and designers from different factories and R&D centers around the world, and performed research and experiments in respect to lead-free applications. The Corporate Technology Group of Flextronics is responsible for planning and coordination, and finally preparing a set of documents - Lead-Free Product Conversion Manual - containing working results from the entire team. Thereafter, it began to perform lead-free training and certification for each factory around the world. So far, most factories of Flextronics around the world have finished internal certification.

Lead-free certification is focused on lead-free processes, quality and logistics while RoHS compliance certification is involved with every department within the company. To do so, Flextronics has developed another set of documents --RoHS Operations Conversion Manual – to perform RoHS compliance checking of every Flextronics factory.

“Every day, we are learning new knowledge and obtaining new data. Therefore, both manuals are updated constantly. Flextronics requires that related personnel in every factory around the world understands related contents of both manuals,” said Dr. Shangguan. “The schedule for factories migrating from lead to lead-free is determined by customers. Every Flextronics factory around the world must have the ability to meet the customer’s requirements in advance.”

Meeting challenges from RoHS
RoHS affects almost every loop in entire supply chain. All materials and parts used by standalone products, including PCB, components , cables, mechanical parts and accessorial materials, must meet RoHS requirements. Therefore, the production not only needs to solve various problems in lead-free process implementation, but also needs to ensure the reliability of lead-free products. Management not only needs to solve various problems and confusions in the migration stage, but also needs to perform RoHS certification of all suppliers. In addition, there are many other issues that need to be addressed, including acceptance standard, verification standard, certification specifications, IT system upgrade etc.

Dr. Shangguan emphasized: “For the entire industry, RoHS compliance is a huge system project. Because of globalization of the supply chain, not just a few enterprises or a few countries are involved. The entire industry must cooperate to meet various challenges from RoHS. For example, almost all products need to use screws for assembly and these low-cost parts are usually purchased locally. However, even today, some suppliers have not heard of RoHS and don’t know what effect it will bring to their customers.”

“Based on this understanding, Flextronics does not only strengthen the communication with all suppliers, but has also published over 100 academic papers at international conferences and media, introduced its efforts in various international academic workshops and seminars, and shared our research results with our colleagues in the industry. In addition, we also take active part in the preparation of technical roadmaps and international standards together with international organizations like iNEMI and IPC.”

Becoming a green corporate citizen
As modern electronic technologies develop, a variety of electronic products enter people’s work and living areas at an increasingly faster speed. Subsequently, the number of unused electronic products is increasing. If handled improperly, these unused products will cause significant damage to our environment and electronic manufacturers must recognize this trend.

Dr. Shangguan said: “Because of fierce business competition, manufacturing technologies becoming mature, plus cost considerations, it has become mainstream for OEM enterprises to outsource. For EMS enterprises, this means that corresponding responsibilities are taken over from OEM enterprises, including development of manufacturing technologies, product design services, logistics management and meeting environment protection requirements. Therefore, making every effort to become a green corporate citizen should be one of the main goals of EMS enterprises. In this aspect, Flextronics is a leader in the industry.”

Dr. Dongkai Shangguan can be reached at Dongkai.Shangguan@flextronics.com