iNEMI and IPC Collaborate on Circularity Challenges in Electronics Manufacturing

• By: iNEMI
• On: 08/06/2024 09:07:18
• In: Announcements

Consumers and regulators are driving electronics manufacturers to implement more circular design principles for their products and, while there are a number of leaders in this area, the majority of organizations have identified gaps in their knowledge including lack of data, lack of clear definitions of what “circular economy” means and training to effectively apply existing principles across product life cycles. There is also a need to understand ROI and other potential incentives for implementing circular principles.  

iNEMI and IPC are collaborating to identify and address some of the key challenges of circularity in electronics manufacturing. Following from the successful workshop held at Electronics Goes Green (EGG) 2024 in Berlin, we'll be kicking off four working groups in September dedicated to finding solutions to the following industry problems regarding circularity for electronics: 

1. Lack of data — data challenges associated with implementing circularity such as what data is needed and by whom, and how circularity data is identified, collected and communicated along the electronics manufacturing value chain. 
2. Definition of circularity for electronics
3. Economic incentives — are they required to speed up adoption of circularity? 
4. Expertise/education — what type of information is needed to optimize implementation of circularity effectively?

Please plan to join us in September. We will hold kick-off meetings as follows:

• Data problems/solutions: Tuesday, September 10, 10:30-11:30 a.m. EDT
• Definition problems/solutions: Thursday, September 12, 10:30-11:30 a.m. EDT
• Economics problems/solutions: Tuesday, September 17, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EDT
• Education/lack of expertise problems/solutions: Thursday, September 19, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EDT

If you want to get involved with any of these groups, please contact Kelly Scanlon (IPC) at kellyscanlon@ipc.org or Mark Schaffer (iNEMI) at marks@inemi.org. 

Previous Meetings

There's No End to a Circle. The four areas listed above were identified through industry discussions held earlier this summer. The effort started with a workshop — "There's no end to a circle: A workshop on how to address circularity challenges in electronics manufacturing" — held at the Electronics Goes Green (EGG) conference in Berlin June 17. At this face-to-face workshop, industry experts began scoping solutions to address some of the more important circularity challenges, including the need for systems and processes for remanufacturing, recycling, repairability, reusability, upgradability, and resource efficiency. The workshop also featured two keynote speakers:

• Dr. Stephan Harkema (Holst Centre): Circular strategies for printed electronics
• Dr. Carol Handwerker (Purdue University): Circular economy for hard disk drives — a lesson in grit

Materials from the workshop are available online:

• Workshop presentations (June 17, 2024)
  
• Pre-workshop survey results

Circularity Challenges in Electronics Manufacturing.  A follow-up webinar held July 17 reviewed results from the EGG workshop and continued the discussion about circularity challenges that can be addressed collaboratively. This webinar led to the definition of the four working groups referenced above. Materials from the webinar are available online:

• Webinar recording
  
• Webinar presentation
  
• Poll results (based on real-time polls taken during the webinar to identify/rank the most pressing challenges in circularity)