Study on the Risk Management of Electronics Industry in Response to the EU’s Regulations on Prohibited Chemicals

• Main Authors: Wen-Kai Chen, 陳文凱
• Other Authors: 胡憲倫
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/296w48

碩士 === 國立臺北科技大學 === 環境規劃與管理研究所 === 95 === After the enforcement of several EU directives- especially the RoHS directive, electronics industry encounters a great deal of environmental risk owing to the restricted or prohibited chemicals within the products, for which it is related to the requirements set by the international name brand companies to their suppliers for transferring risks to their entire supply chain. As OEMs or ODMs for the international name brand companies, almost all the Taiwanese electrnics companies have to bear these environmental risks. Therefore, the purpose of study is to investigate how the Taiwanese companies in response to the risks associated with the requirements of EU regulations on restricted chemicals and to provide effective risk management and practical suggestions to them. This study first conducted a thorough literature review on the practices and requirements of electronics companies worldwide to understand how the chemical related risks are being tackled and managed. Then, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to the Taiwanese listed electronics companies to explore how these companies prioitize the importance of different risks, according to their awareness and actual practices in response to this issue. The results show that shipment stage received the most concern by Taiwanese electronics companies and followed by the risk at product design stage. There are three practices considered most effective in responding to risks of restricted chemicals, they are creating a database to manage listed chemicals, performing eco-design to eliminate the usage of prohibited chemicals, and complying different requirements of the areas and countries of shipments. Result of one-way ANOVA also indicated that companies who has small and medium scale (i.e. SMEs) and whose buyers are from Europe have best performance in responing to the risks due to restricted chemicals. It is suggested that cooperates should establish an environmental risk management mechanism which can prioritize the risks and provide suitable and effective management measures in order to response to the consequential effectiveness of EU directives and to improve the green competitiveness.