Re: REACH - what a load of Euro bollox

<z180@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:v07bn45oj6m89ask42apq711bhhm75ual8@xxxxxxxxxx

Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> wrote

Is it REACH or the WEEE recycling initiative. I would not have
expected REACH to affect you unless you are selling bulk chemicals
into the EU. But there are a few things in electronics that might
raise eyebrows - BeO paste inside some high power devices and on
heatsinks for instance.

It is REACH.

I don't think WEEE is mandatory for electronic products sold to trade
users. At least I see a lot of smoke but no sign of anything being
made mandatory. If it was, the outcome would simply be that customers
return the product to us and we chuck it in the skip. In reality, they
will chuck it in their skip instead because the shipping charges are
not worth it.

You may be able to find enough info on the ECHA website to head off
any ludicrous requests from halfwitted drudges who have probably sent
the questionaire out to everyone they do business with.

http://echa.europa.eu/reach_en.asp

x----------x

We're getting this from Japan, too. Forms to fill out, listing
milligrams of stuff we never heard of.

We can't use solder coated boards for some customers, and tin coating
is crap to solder. So we go with gold. But under the gold is a nickel
barrier layer. And nickel is apparently bad stuff too

Roger ISO9000 = crap.

It was marginally better than BS5750 which was basically like ISO9000
but without the international recognition. All the costs of
implementation and none of the benefits for international exports. My
boss was very proud of the 2m^3 of controlled documentation that his
new quality empire produced. I had to maintain my copy :(

Strange thing is that ISO9000 != Quality. It may guarantee
reproducibility if you are lucky and the operatives follow the
procedures to the letter. They might even manufacture adequate product
if the procedures are correct.

An ISO9000 heretics guide to making toast.

1. Insert thick sliced bread in toaster and switch on.
2. When flames and smoke are seen switch off.
3. Extract toast.
3. Extinguish flames.
4. Scrape blackened burnt parts off until toast is uniform brown
matching shade card #1

You now have a reproducible ISO9000 procedure for making toast. ISTR
there was some additional paperwork too.

I have seen manufacturing procedures that were not all that different.
They enshrined existing bad practices in the "quality" procedures and
then because it was too much hassle to change the paperwork it
fossilised. Another take on ISO 9000/5750 from an even more jaundiced
perspective is online at:

http://www.zyra.org.uk/iso9002.htm

I think that is very good :)

Basically, under ISO9000 you could make a product which self destructs
in 6 months, and provided that is written into your quality manual,
you cannot be denied certification.

The basic problem is that all the firms which made crap, adopted
ISO9000 first, and used it as a quality marketing tool. This debased
it into a totally meaningless process.

It still lives on, because a lot of jobs (people not capable of doing
a real job) are in it and these people are well dug in. But the
pressure from customers to adopt it seems to have gone. I just don't
see it anymore. Their QA man still sends you a questionnaire every
year, where you tick boxes like "do you segregate defective product"
(YES SIR, we mix it up with the good stuff and send it all out)
because he is paid GBP 40k for doing it. But only the biggest
customers give a damn. I imagine if you wanted to sell 100k telephone
sockets / year to British Telecom you would need iSO9000.

I have occassionally looked at the avionics business too. I would
avoid major-level products but there is a lot of PMA stuff one could
make. PMA is like ISO9000 but harder, and hard to do in Europe because
the inspectors have to come over from the USA.

ROHS is another one. A lot of smoke but it has settled. Everybody is
now "compliant" - the Chinese stick ROHS stickers onto cartons of
toilet rolls. The press still carries scary articles about
enforcement, written by the usual axe grinders (ROHS consultants) but
I doubt anybody reads them anymore.

Fortunately, Europe has never put any resources into enforcement of
this crap. Places like Italy, Spain, France ignore the regs anyway.
The UK tends to gold plate all regs but even the UK has never got hard
on checks.

The Japanese quality system works by encouraging small incremental
improvements to both process and design. You would be surprised how
effectively 100 1% improvements compound up (small changes that
Western companies tend to ignore). 1.01^100 = 2.7x

The Japs are more dedicated and seem to avoid Euro-style pointless job
creation. Europe gets bogged down in cynical crap, supported by lots
of expenses-paid conferences.

Good post, I agree completely. You forgot to mention Greece, Portugal
and most new members :)

M


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