Quality
Overview
AS9120
ISO 9001
ERAI
AS5553
IDEA-STD-1010
ESD2020 / JEDEC
Quality Mgt. System
 "The
destiny of mankind is not decided by material computation. When great causes
are on the move in the world ... we learn that we are spirits, not animals,
and that something is going on in space and time, and beyond space and time,
which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”
--
Winston
Churchill |
AS5553 & Counterfeit Avoidance
AS5553 is an aerospace quality standard focused on
counterfeit detection and avoidance. As the standard has only recently
been published, there is, as of this writing, no mechanism by which Arcadia or
any other company in its industry would be able to become formally certified
or registered to this standard by an accredited third-party registrar.
However, Arcadia has already incorporated substantially all of the relevant
components of AS5553 into its Quality Management System
("QMS")
and Arcadia management believes it is in full compliance with AS5553.
The Counterfeit Electronics Imperative
Perhaps
no other industry has been affected more profoundly by the burgeoning global
trade in
counterfeits than that of the board-level electronic components industry.
While the aggregate dollar value of counterfeits in other sectors is greater,
counterfeited electronic components are especially troublesome because they
are more difficult to detect. If not ferreted out prior to printed
circuit board assembly, counterfeits can undermine the integrity of an OEM's finished
product costing 100s or even thousands of times the amount associated with the
standard cost of the counterfeited item itself, not to mention the potential
damage to brand and customer relationships. U.S. Customs Enforcement
reports that counterfeits, in general, is a multi-million dollar problem and
that fully 95% of such counterfeit goods originate from China.
Nowhere
is this issue more self-evident than as it relates to counterfeit electronics
making it into the supply chain of the U.S. military, as reported in the
October 13,2008 Business Week cover story entitled "Dangerous Fakes: How counterfeit,
defective computer components from China are getting into U.S. warplanes and
ships."
The Solution: AS5553 - Counterfeit Electronic Parts: Avoidance,
Detection,
Mitigation, and Disposition
 As
an adjunct to AS9100 and AS9120, SAE
Aerospace, the SAE (Society of Automotive
Engineers) aerospace quality
standards body, spent over 18 months authoring a new standard
for counterfeit detection for electronic parts, with a focus on aerospace and
military. The output,
the aerospace AS5553 quality
standard, parallels the structure of AS9120, in that virtually every part of
a Quality Management System is addressed, in order to achieve the objectives of
counterfeit avoidance, detection, mitigation and disposition -- including
vendor selection and management, receiving, quality assurance and inspection,
shipping, customer management, communication and notification, and
participation in industry counterfeit measures via
ERAI, IDEA,
GIDEP, and other
industry organizations.
 As
the standard has only recently been published, there is, as of this writing,
no mechanism by which Arcadia or any other company in its industry would be
able to become formally certified or registered to this standard by an
accredited third-party registrar. However, Arcadia has already
incorporated substantially all of the relevant components of AS5553 into its
Quality Management System
("QMS")
and Arcadia management believes it is in full compliance with AS5553.
Specifically,
the Arcadia QMS procedure "Counterfeit Part Prevention & Control Policy"
(QSP-741),
details the process by which Arcadia employees
in various departments are required to actively participate in the
counterfeit avoidance process.
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