The biggest question mark has been – and remains – around the life cycles of non-compliant products. Inevitably products that are not exempt and are not RoHS-compliant are being phased out. This needs to be monitored, planned for, and communicated to design engineers in order to control the transition, whilst still providing choice in the market.
The phasing out of non-compliant stock is happening more quickly than people think. Manufacturers of both medical and test equipment, for example, despite not currently being within the scope of RoHS, are still moving towards compliance for environmental reasons.
So far there has been a good transition to compliant parts and this momentum needs to be kept up. Non-compliant stock, where there is a compliant alternative, is also burning off as predicted. Both the interest in non-compliant and the levels of inventory are declining as engineers make the move across to RoHS. There has been a massive sea change but it is crucial that manufacturers and distributors do not take their eye off the ball.
Joan Irving is procurement director at Farnell InOne
