Full Material Declarations: Essential for Managing Compliance

Managing compliance in the wide world of electronics is easier said than done. From RoHS to REACH to Conflict Minerals and more, there are countless compliance standards to stay up to date with. And that’s why we have the Full Material Declaration (FMD). To narrow the scope and scale of compliance necessities, simplify the process, and ensure your team remains informed about the compliance standards of each product.

What Is an FMD?

An XML file including all of the information of an electrical or mechanical component is known as a Full Material Declaration. It is available to download and import into Product Lifecycle Management applications through electronics databases such as Z2Data.

This XML file may be used by Product Managers to cross-check compliance statuses and compliance details in order to make more informed supply chain choices. The use of an FMD reduces the inefficient need to browse through multiple suppliers' websites for their entire material declaration forms to confirm that the materials used in their parts are safe and compliant.

Specifically, the FMD is a list of all the materials and substances in your product. It is a thorough substance-level declaration of every constituent ingredient in, and purposefully added to, every homogenous material in the items you sell to a consumer.

The Proactive Nature of the FMD

By providing complete material declaration, all supply chain participants may adopt a proactive approach to regulatory management. Regulation requirements are forever evolving, and new municipal, federal, and worldwide regulations are being created all the time. A comprehensive material declaration may be examined to detect compliance status and data gaps for any relevant legislation or directive, saving time and money for all supply chain participants.

Managing Updates to Regulations

Responding to your clients' requirements with an FMD means fewer resources are required to meet recurring demands as rules change, such as when chemicals are added to the European Union REACH Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) list multiple times a year.

Rather than delivering an update every time rules change, an FMD may be reviewed by your clients for a variety of regulations as they change. Collecting FMDs from your supply chain saves your enterprise time and resources in obtaining and certifying updates from all of your vendors.

Using FMDs helps you to determine the compliance status of your goods for any set of rules and their requirements at any point in time, especially when new laws come into play and old ones grow and expand their impact. This alleviates the need to contact your providers every time your requirements change.