How do you turn compliance into an opportunity? RoHs & REACH environmental regulations

International Summit on Industrial Engineering

December 08-10, 2014 DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Francisco Airport, USA

Ken Kapur

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Ind Eng Manage

Abstract :

Due to end of life concerns with electronics and the impact to human health and the environment, new product environmental regulations are rapidly becoming a challenge for electronics manufacturers. Based on the European RoHS and REACH requirements, it is imperative that manufacturers successfully comply with product environmental regulations in a timely manner. However, the real value is not just to comply, but to fully integrate these requirements into business processes and take advantage of new opportunities. Strategies for successful compliance will be discussed to turn compliance into an opportunity. The RoHS regulations target the removal of the six banned substances. RoHS was originally released in the European Union, but similar requirements have expanded globally. Throughout the supply chain, the substances shall be removed such that end products can be compliant. The REACH SVHC requirements target over 150 substances. New obligations have been set up to identify, communicate and phase out these substances. Based on detailed research of these restricted substances, these substances can be readily found in the supply chain. Communication is required throughout the electronics industry to identify usage and phase out restricted substances. This presentation will look at the complete product life cycle but will focus on the impacts of restricted substances. Opportunities to integrate the requirements into business processes will be covered along with optimizing systems.

Biography :

Ken Kapur is leading the Global Compliance Engineering Group at Thermo Fisher Scientific LSG Division as an Associate Director; he is currently responsible for Product certification of Instruments at Thermo Fisher. He has an extensive background with over 25 years in Product Compliance. He has an Electrical Engineering Degree from the University of the Pacific and started his work in the area of product safety. He has expanded his expertise to cover a wide range of compliance requirements from Product Safety to Environmental Compliance. He has been invited to speak at a number of forums on various regulatory compliance topics globally.