Very well put!

Shawn Vike
Operations Manager
Pathway Connectivity Inc.

>>  From my limited knowledge:

 >>  Against adding new part numbers - A LOT of extra
 >>  paperwork and hassle as you go through all your old
 >>  part numbers.

 >>  For adding new part numbers - It becomes a LOT easier
 >>  to make sure an assembly is RoHS-compliant.  Just look
 >>  at the BOM and make sure that none of the old-style
 >>  part numbers are on the supposedly RoHS-compliant BOM.



 >>  My experience with people is that simpler systems
 >>  lead to less opportunities for mistakes,
 >>  misunderstandings or forgotten steps.  But making a
 >>  system simple (in this instance) for manufacturing
 >>  means a LOT more work on the data-entry side.
 >>  So, it is really a philosophical decision.  Which
 >>  are you most worried about occurring, a mistake which
 >>  will put a non-RoHS compliant part on a supposedly
 >>  RoHS-compliant assembly, or extra costs, personnel
 >>  time, overhead, opportunity costs, etc. from the
 >>  duplicate parts numbers being put in the system?
 >>  If you know that your system is rock-solid,
 >>  mistakes on BOMs are rare if ever, your personnel are
 >>  all well-trained about which parts to take from which
 >>  bins and it is generally unlikely that a non-RoHS
 >>  compliant part will be put in a
 >>  should-be-RoHS-compliant assembly and you are in a
 >>  low-margin or very competitive segment of the market
 >>  where extra data-entry and -tracking personnel are not
 >>  really affordable, then you might get by with only
 >>  having new part numbers for non-backwards-compatible
 >>  parts.
 >>  But if you know you are going to have both leaded
 >>  and lead-free assemblies being built in the same
 >>  factory for quite some time and you have any worries
 >>  about human error causing non-RoHS-compliant parts (or
 >>  worse, leaded solder!) to be used in a
 >>  supposedly-RoHS-compliant product or assembly line,
 >>  then a whole different set of part numbers for ALL
 >>  RoHS-compliant components is probably the way to go.
 >>  That way, personnel training is simpler - assemblers
 >>  know if it's used on the RoHS line then it had better
 >>  come from a bin of parts with the new part numbers,
 >>  receiving and purchasing know that any component that
 >>  goes in bins with the new part numbers had better be
 >>  RoHS-compliant, and if there is a question about a
 >>  particular assembly being RoHS-compliant it is easy to
 >>  scan through the BOM and make sure all the components
 >>  have the new part numbers.

 >>  -Camille
 >>  Portland, Oregon

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