| Abstract: |
In meeting the challenges of sustainable design, information must flow through the manufacturing supply chain. Examples of this information include; product material data, product and process energy usage, and chemical safety information. To assist in the transfer of this information between different supply chain entities, data exchange standards are needed. Properly implemented these standards can facilitate the flow of information through the supply chain, which can reduce risk and associated costs. Many of these benefits can be lost if the supply chain entities use different standards for data transfer. This can lead to the inability to read data, incomplete data, and incorrect or misinterpreted data. Unfortunately, standards development organizations often develop new standards for their member’s benefits and pay little attention to similar outside development efforts leading to the above scenario. This paper describes several standardization efforts for material data exchange in the electronics industry and the lessons that can be learned from these efforts |
