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Responsible supply chain management ensures product safety and reduces liability in global expansion
When expanding a business globally, most companies wish to deal with products and manufacturing over several geographical areas. No matter where the products are manufactured, companies expect to deliver to their customers’ products that arrive on time and that are of the highest quality and safety, as well as ensure Competitive total cost and overall quality. That’s an imperative to maintain brand loyalty and sustainable business growth. Responsible supply chain management throughout the entire product lifecycle is essential if a company is to keep that promise to its customers and to protect goodwill in every region and product-related aspect.
Responsibility of a true global supply chain
To maintain a low procurement cost, acceptable component quality, sufficient inventory levels and on-time logistics arrangements become substantial parts of supply chain management. In a true global supply chain, the company should manage its suppliers from regional sites so interactions take into account and accommodate each region’s cultural background, standards, and agreements. At the same time the company needs to coordinate the supply chain globally. Especially when doing business in countries where environmental protection and social responsibility are of particular concern, it must be ensured that suppliers in those regions comply with local legislation for those aspects. To secure new materials and handle obsolete material properly, the company also needs to keep track of and implement regulations as they are instituted.
Elcoteq’s proactive approach for a responsible supply chain
Elcoteq’s main business is to provide electronics manufacturing services to enterprises involved in communications technology and to manage their supply chains. Elcoteq fully understands the needs of those businesses and has a proactive approach to ensure a responsible supply chain for its customers - all over the world. In its manufacturing services, Elcoteq only uses components and subcontractors that have been approved by its customers and provides service of supplier and component qualification, Early Supplier Involvement in new product program and full quality assurance of components used in production. Elcoteq both manufactures and tests the products in accordance with the agreed specifications and standards. Performing inspection for incoming materials, it is ensured that components delivered by suppliers meet conformance to requirements, such as reliability, quality and environmental requirements.
Component and supplier related information are registered, stored and managed for global visibility by a Global Supplier Database, that gives a clear view on supply performance, when it comes to component delivery and quality. The information in this database is used for optimizing quality assurance in the supply chain and identifying product quality and liability risks related to components and materials. There is also a system to help reporting the product recyclability, which is an important element in meeting requirements such as the WEEE Directive, which require certain recyclability levels for electronic products. Elcoteq has a dedicated approval process for ensuring that products and production measure up to requirements. Procedures agreed on with the customer are used in product testing and inspections as well as product database management. Elcoteq is responsible for the confidentiality, correctness, and availability of its information on individual products and customers. Elcoteq ensures that Supplier meet the Environmental laws and regulation (ISO1401, SA8000), Quality System Requirement (ISO 9001, TL 9000 or ISO/TS 16949), Regulatory Agency compliance/Product safety by Supplier Audits for new suppliers.
Elcoteq has incorporated corporate responsibility issues into supplier management processes, requirements, and audits as well as created a separate operating model for the corporate responsibility audits to be applied for identified high-risk suppliers. All of its suppliers are required to have an environmental system in line with ISO14001 and to comply with the principles of SA8000.
Topics:
ems, Supply Chain Management
