Front End I Electronic Components Supply Network
What’s IDEA doing for my organisation
Trade associations exist to support their members and a particular industry segment but also have a role to play in serving the wider public interest. As chairman of both the Electronics Components Supply Network (ecsn) and the International Distributors of Electronics Association (IDEA) Adam Fletcher outlines how associations support their members and the community
T
he benefits of trade associations were recognised as far back as the 16th century. They flourished throughout
Europe, supporting employment and providing a regulation framework for trade and craft organisations. Many of these organisations continue to operate successfully today. The Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers for instance has close links with the electronics industry and is also part of the Livery Companies of the City of London. In the early days members of trade associations were primarily individuals with a personal interest, although the more philanthropic amongst them may have also represented the collective interest.
ECSN The UK’s first electronic components trade association was established in 1970. Roy Atterbury an electronics industry media editor set up afdec (now ecsn) to help organisations manage change in what was a very fast growing but highly cyclical industry. The current membership of ecsn is responsible for over 90% of the Distributor Total Available Market, which itself represents a significant proportion of the Total Available Market for electronic components, that in 2013, is forecast to be approximately £3.6bn.
IDEA
The International Distributors of Electronics Association (IDEA) was formed in 1987 to provide a global umbrella organisation - or an ‘association of local trade associations’ - for the rapidly growing electronic components market. It was formed primarily to recognise and share best industry practice on a global basis, develop meaningful industry statistics and encourage greater collaboration amongst the local trade associations. At the time it was a fairly visionary move for the leaders of domestic trade associations who recognised that the market for electronic components was beginning to operate on a global basis and the need to participate at local, regional and international levels if
8 April 2013 Components in Electronics
they were to maintain their momentum. The founding members of IDEA were;
ecsn formally afdec (UK/Ireland), ASSODEL (Italy), ecia formally NEDA (USA), FBDi (Germany), SE (Sweden), SPDEI (France) and were quickly followed by JEPIA (Japan), ecaanz (Australia and New Zealand) and ADEC (South Africa).
In the last five years IDEA has helped establish local trade associations in China (CEDA), Russia (ARDEC), Tunisia (FEDELEC) and through collaboration with an existing organisation in India (ELCINA). Surprisingly given their geographic dispersion and different markets the aims, operation and organisational structure of the local trade associations within IDEA are all very similar. They are all member managed, not for profit organisations, with transparent operations and procedures managed by a small secretariat and management team.
So how does this help individuals and organisations operating in the electronics industry in the UK?
Statistical reporting
In the UK the overall market benefited from the early statistical reporting provided by afdec. It provided organisations investing in Europe with access to hard data that was not available elsewhere, directly influencing investment decisions,
encouraging components manufacturers and distributors to invest in the UK as a first base in Europe, and indirectly increasing the choice and availability of electronic components to local designers. In Europe all local IDEA members have harmonised the way they gather their local statistics over the last three years. They now report these figures in a common global format that enables the association to provide its members with highly detailed information and also widely publish the headline information in the local trade and financial media in the belief that it enables the wider industry to gain an insight into what’s happening in the market and how it may impact them. The graphic shows ‘IDEA – European Components Billings’ for the last two years by quarter. As an ‘eye chart’ it enables the user to quickly identify that the German electronic components market is twice as large as the UK market, that the overall trends look to be fairly common but crucially, that the German sales revenue declined faster in Q4 12, whist the Italian market grew slightly against the overall trend. IDEA will be rolling out its common format data collecting practice globally in 2013 with the aim of reporting in 2014. The association needs to gather at least one year’s data in order to construct meaningful comparisons for reporting purposes.
Environmental legislation Over the last five years the electronics industry has had to respond quickly to very significant changes in local, regional and global environmental legislation i.e. RoHS, REACH, WEEE, and EUP. Sadly the global electronics industry has been ‘wrong footed’ on much of this legislation in 2013 because of a reluctance by Government departments and their legislators to involve trade associations in the apparent belief
that there would be no adverse impact on the electronics industry.
IDEA was quick to assemble its members who have now collaborated to ensure that accurate, timely and practical information on the impact of the legislation is available to its members and importantly, to their end customers. The association is today working closely with the enforcement bodies to define best practice procedures, whilst local member organisations are pro- actively involved with their governmental departments and legislators, advising them on the impact of proposed legislation and the affects it might have on the industry. In a number of instances, we’ve been able to positively influence the outcome. To further help members and their customers IDEA has agreed to collaborate with SustainHub (
www.sustainhub-
research.eu) to develop a totally independent database system to track electronic components and systems through their entire life cycle for all of the current and future legislation needs. The data will be populated and managed by electronic components manufacturers or their authorised distributors and will also be freely available to users. We believe that SustainHub as a single repository and access point for this information will result in a significant cost reduction for the industry.
Counterfeit products IDEA has been very influential in highlighting the wider industry awareness of the risks associated with counterfeit electronic components and devising strategies to mitigate this major industry problem. Whilst there have been a number of significant successes working closely with government agencies counterfeiting remains a critical industry issue.
Increased collaboration
At a local level IDEA member associations continue to encourage and promote enhanced collaboration across the supply network. Locally ecsn is continually striving to enhance the communication process and would encourage you to join our LinkedIn Group ‘electronic components supply network’. Most commercial and government organisations benefit from membership or close collaboration with industry trade associations, who offer a wide range of services that they can directly assist them, whilst promoting industry issues for the wider public good.
ECSN |
www.ecsn-uk.org Adam Fletcher is Chairman of Afdec/ECSN
www.cieonline.co.uk
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