ROHS – A Business Process Rejuvenation

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the business process rejuvenation with the ROHS legislation in terms of redesigns with the same footprints and reining in the entire supply chain. Also the costs incurred to convert the legacy product line to ROHS process complied are actually accompanied with the cost reduction in the products with a quick payback period. The ROHS complied replacement of small pitch components like microcontrollers gives rise to accelerated obscelescence. This in turn gives an opportunity to have newer higher end devices like microcontrollers at the same or lesser price to be incorporated in the design allowing building up the software features with the same hardware platform for reusability. With ROHS legislation it becomes imperative to relook at the product design in terms of ROHS process compliance and towards that endeavor, the legacy products are revitalized. The ability to have legacy products and processes rejuvenated with latest features, lower cost and hence added value also has positive influences with lesser stock keeping units and lower inventory to manage. All the changes in the manufacturing process with the new solder alloy components and component composition in terms of metallic chemistry has to be tested for reliability with the older units as baseline along with the specification. This requires covering the entire supply chain starting from gathering component data to assembly processes. It is necessary for the business to have the testing rigor to calculate life expectancy since reengineering a stable product line for the ROHS compliance has to at least have the reliability exhibited by earlier designs and field service data. The process to execute the required ROHS compliance initiated by the required component data to PCB manufacturing and final product assembly is discussed.