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American Power Conversion (APC)

APC uses EMARS to manage environmental compliance.

Company Description

American Power Conversion (APC) provides devices that protect electronic equipment against many of the primary causes of data loss, hardware damage and downtime. APC products include surge suppressors, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), and DC power systems. APC products are used in homes, commercial offices, business networks, access provider networks, data centers and facilities.

Business Challenge

With much of its product portfolio subject to environmental regulations, such as those driven by EU RoHS and WEEE, APC realized that it needed a robust process for managing compliance supported by the best tools available. Their existing systems were not sufficient to cost-effectively meet the new environmental requirements. For example, their supply chain management tools lacked the mechanisms to query suppliers on material content. Product quality functions lacked the mechanisms to qualify components and products from a material content perspective. Finally, from a process standpoint, APC’s New Product Development (NPD) procedures contained no mechanisms for addressing product material content or environmental design characteristics.

Synapsis Project

APC selected EMARS because they needed an environmental compliance management tool that integrated compliance information throughout the design and procurement process. Synapsis implemented EMARS, integrating it with APC’s existing product database systems containing supplier part, supplier, and BOM structure information. Synapsis also worked with APC to integrate EMARS into their part qualification and new product development processes and systems.

Impact

EMARS was rapidly adopted throughout the organization, and immediately began playing a key role in APC’s compliance program.

EMARS supported APC’s initial data collection effort, as environmental teams located in India, the Philippines, China, Ireland and the U.S sent compliance status requests to suppliers covering more than 55,000 supplier part numbers. Within several months over 80% of the required information was submitted by the suppliers. The data were collected, validated, and stored by EMARS. With the increased visibility provided by EMARS, APC was able to easily track which suppliers did not provide the required information and take corrective action – in some cases removing the supplier from APC’s approved vendor list.

EMARS plays an important role in APC’s day-to-day product development efforts. EMARS helps APC ensure that all future products will be designed with environmental compliance in mind. It all starts with the new part approval process. Only supplier parts that meet the applicable environmental compliance requirements are authorized for purchase. Next, comes product design. EMARS and the environmental characteristics it tracks have been integrated into the process APC uses to develop all new products. It’s a part of the workflow used by all engineers.

Today, EMARS helps APC design compliant products, while making the process of ensuring compliance easier and less costly. In fact, engineers now prefer viewing their product BOMs in EMARS because of its user-friendly web interface and the fact that it aggregates key information from many sources.

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