Hong Kong Productivity Council, Microsoft Launch RoHS Portal

May 30, 2006

The implementation of the European Union (EU) Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) is expected to significantly impact Hong Kong manufacturers. With this in mind, the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) and Microsoft Hong Kong Ltd. jointly developed the RoHS Portal to facilitate industry management of RoHS-related data and documents. The portal was designed to serve as an online information and data management platform for RoHS compliance.

The EU directive is scheduled to be implemented by July 1, 2006 in EU member states and will cover 10 categories of electrical and electronic equipment, which account for the majority of local exports, according to HKPC. The RoHS Portal is designed for manufacturers of audio-visual equipment, toys, electronic products, IT and communications equipment, electrical appliances and lighting equipment.

According to HKPC, the RoHS Portal will assist companies to enhance operations and manage documents related to RoHS-compliant testing and application, as well as obtain up-to-date compliance information. The portal is electronic-signature protected, but can be accessed via the Internet or Intranet. It also can be integrated with a variety of enterprise applications, such as enterprise wide resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), product lifecycle management (PLM) and inventory system.

Other portal features include an auto-reminder function for RoHS inspection, re-tests and vendor audit; data and attribute validation and error notification; web posting of compliance information; and compliance reports for parts and supplier performance.

"As a productivity improvement tool for RoHS compliance, the RoHS Portal has designed e-forms to simplify RoHS laboratory test as well as supplier material declaration requests," said Frank Leung, general manager (Electronics Product Innovation) of HKPC. "With a centralized filing of test reports, supplier declaration forms and other supporting documents, the portal provides an efficient system for tracking and retrieval of RoHS-compliant applications."

The portal is part of the Productivity Plus initiative, which HKPC and Microsoft launched in December 2005 to help local companies meet new business challenges, such as compliance with international environmental standards.

Source: Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC).