Jarek,

My opinions/observations immediately follow your questions. Call me if
you would like more details.

Best regards,

Andy Kostic

Andrew D. Kostic, Ph. D.
Engineering Fellow
Northrop Grumman
Electronic Systems
Product Integrity Engineering
(410) 765 6594

-----Original Message-----

How did the electronic industry component and final product
manufacturers
initially respond to RoHS? How did the response evolve over time?
- Varied depending on the amount of business being done in countries in
EU and the product. Most have ramped up over time either to embrace the
requirements or to work just as hard to maintain traditional materials.


Was the response of manufacturers in exempt industries (medical,
aerospace,
military) the same as their non-exempt counter parts?  How did it the
evolve?
- No, they were avoiders or are at best slow adopters. Ramped up in a
similar fashion to the first group with a delay time of 6 months to a
year.

How big of a role did industry associations (Example: IPC, NIST, EIA)
play
in RoHS compliance?  How did they interact with customers, government,
component and final product manufacturers?
- After the fact efforts to find a set of standards based on parochial
interests and limited knowledge of the physics of the replacement
materials.

RoHS brought quite a bit of uncertainty to the electronic industry.  How
did the industry respond to this uncertainty to bring order to the
chaos?
- Still chaotic as many companies are selling "the answer" and have
little interest in adopting someone else's solutions. More commonality
in test procedures than materials and processes.

What was the customer response to RoHS induced changes taken by the
industry?
- Perceived the consumer market as a benefit due to "environmentally
friendly" products (actually a negative impact to the environment).
Increasing negativity in proportion to product service life,
criticality, and severity of the application environment. 

What were the unforeseen impacts of RoHS on the electronic industry?
How
and when did they emerge?
- Magnitude of change and costs required in re-engineering manufacturing
processes to provide ROHS compliant products. Tin whiskers and tin
plague are major reliability impactors. Seem to start getting noticed in
2003.

What steps did final electronic product manufacturers take ensure that
they
will be RoHS compliant?  What were the major obstacles in this process?
How did the supply chain change?
- Cannot answer the first or second parts of this question. Many changes
to new materials and many of the changes were don with little or no
notice to users.

What is different from before to after RoHS impact in the context of
doing
business with outside companies?
- Require much more effort in managing technical aspects of the
business.

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