Material Composition Milestone Program

The high-tech industry needs to know the material composition of their products to satisfy legislation, drive environmental improvements in design, and be capable of providing information for customers and stakeholders when required. 

High Level Introduction

Summary of the targeted ebusiness process, affected supply chain and roles.

Overview

Process to simplify the effort to gather material composition data for both the Product Owners (producers) and Suppliers.

This e-business process is focused on gathering product information that describes the composition of materials. The main reasons to collect this type of material content information are the upcoming legal and regulatory requirements and increasing market requirements. The idea is gather material composition information along with other product information exchanges. 

The initial Material Composition e-business process will focus on a limited set of defined materials and substances to quickly automate information gathering for important and restricted materials and substances.
(See Substance Levels A – C) 

In the long term, it is desirable to gather material composition information as complete as possible for 100% of the products moved through the supply chain. Future program phases may concentrate on a comprehensive gathering of material composition for all materials and substances that make up a product.

Three Levels of Important Materials and Substances

Material Composition information is supported by three different categories of materials and substances. The A & B levels include between 20 and 30 substances each.

Level A: Legislated prohibitions and restrictions
Reporting requirements or other regulated effects defined by legislation or other regulation. Includes international and local legislation regarding specific restricted materials and/or substances.

Level B: Sustainability and Design
Materials and substances that have positive or negative value like recycling. Need to know what end-of-life value a product has. This is important to know at the design phase to check that we don't make solutions that make recycling more expensive or difficult. This level includes also substances of significant environmental concern.

Level C: B2B Decision
Based on market interests, there may be additional maaterials and substances that require attention. This may include materials and substances that are currently under legal discussion or legislative development. In order to prepare for the global discussions, the producers need to understand their use of the substance.

Service and Support Chain

The Materials Composition e-business process will address the information needs for Suppliers and Product Owners in the SM, EC and IT supply chains.

Primary Supply Chain Roles

Product Owner
This trading partner who produces a product and has sole responsibility for the end product. The Product Owner may also be referred to as the brand owner. The Product Owner must gather material composition information from their Suppliers to:

Meet legal and other regulatory requirements .
Provide necessary amount of material information to its’ stakeholders.
Improve products according to market expectations.

Supplier
This trading partner provides the raw materials, components, or parts to the manufacturer, either directly to the Product Owner or to their contracted manufacturer.

The Supplier must communicate the material content of its’ products in order to:

Provide material content for customers.
Prepare adequate and proactive control of material issues

Out of Scope

Reporting to stakeholders: This process does not include the reporting of material composition information to stakeholders such as environmental agencies and legislative groups.

Establishment od lists: Any establishment and maintaining of material and substance lists is outsite of the scope of this program.