I imagine I’d go crazy if I were a manufacturer today. There are so many regulations to follow, and with the burgeoning environmental/green standards, which can differ per country, the complexity grows. Then, when I begin to think about the various substances that are regulated, like lead, hazardous chemicals, etc., coupled with the specific industry regulations, I start feeling like I need a Business Intelligence solution to understand it all. (Breathe now.) And then, I imagine how extra-complex it must be for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers who are outsourcing their parts manufacturing around the globe, where depending on the country, the manufacturing cultures differ, and thus their awareness/compliance to the complex web of. . . directives.

Welcome to the second post in our introductory Green PLM blog series.

We can quickly get overwhelmed when we start digging into Compliance. When it comes to Green Compliance, we’re still in the early days, i.e. there’s a lot more to come. Most of the directives bubble up from Europe, and to my knowledge, so far there are no widespread, ISO-type standards.

Mike Zepp, our in-house regulatory compliance expert, used to deal directly with the type of scenario I imagined above, and now he helps Dassault Systèmes arm companies with tools to successfully navigate through the green compliance jungle. Mike was in Paris recently and kindly agreed to let me video-interview him. Here’s what Mike has to say about Compliance and the role PLM, particularly managing product-linked data throughout the lifecycle, can play to help. The real-life example he cites in the video is particularly telling:

It seems to me that using an efficient compliance assessment and impact analysis data management tool will help put some greenbacks into your Green PLM, or at least save you some. While this is only a piece of Green PLM, it’s a major one.

Stay tuned for my next Green PLM post on reducing material use in product design.

Best,

Kate

P.S. Here are some Green Compliance resources:

Examples of product recycling directives:
End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV)
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE)

Examples of banned substances directives:
Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Directive
Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)

Whitepaper:
The Voice of the Customer: Process Integration and Traceability Through Requirements Management