The Key Indicators of Lead-Free Manufacturing in Electronics Industry in Taiwan and Japan

Abstract

The world's leading countries have reached a consensus concerning the need for environmental protection, and many international environmental protection rules and regulations have been implemented. Of these, the EU-legislated Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS Directive), Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive), and Eco-design of Energy-using Products (EuP) compel the electronics industry to incorporate waste disposal considerations in product design and manufacturing in order to benefit the environment. This study accordingly employed the ISO 14000 environmental management family's ISO 14031 environmental performance evaluation standards as an assessment framework, and investigated the types of factors influencing environmental performance, and their level of importance, when the electronics industry implements lead-free manufacturing. The study conducted a questionnaire survey of experts, scholars, and government units in Taiwan and Japan-which constitute two of the world's leading electronics product manufacturing centers-employed the Delphi Method to extract assessment indicators, and used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to analyze indicators' relative levels of importance. The results showed that the choice of lead-free substitute materials, soil heavy-metal pollution, and compliance with environmental laws and regulations are three important indicators of the environmental performance of lead-free manufacturing. As a consequence, when relevant industries adopt lead-free manufacturing in the future, they should first establish basic process technology, and also take their industries' process characteristics and the suitability of substitute materials into consideration. In order to maintain compliance with laws and regulations, and to reduce pollution emissions, such industries should cooperate with government units in connection with waste and wastewater treatment. In addition, apart from implementing environmental policies and testing standards, government units can facilitate the realization of environmental protection policies and help conserve corporate resources by providing assistance, specialized training, and incentive measures to industry.