Standard Conditions for PCB Industry to Raise the Threshold

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued "Standard Conditions for Printed Circuit Board Industry" (hereinafter referred to as "Standard Conditions") and "Interim Measures for the Administration of Standard Announcement for Printed Circuit Board Industry" (hereinafter referred to as "Interim Measures"). The two documents will come into effect on February 1 this year. Industry insiders have said that the release of the document will be conducive to the layout optimization and structural adjustment of printed circuit board (PCB) industry, and play a positive role in improving the level of development of the industry and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of the industry.

PCB Industry Needs Healthy and Sustainable Development

As a bridge for carrying electronic components and connecting circuits, PCB is an indispensable key basic component in the electronic information industry. Since 2006, China has surpassed Japan to become the world's largest producer of printed circuit boards, ranking first in both output and output value, accounting for 50.53% of the total output value of the global printed circuit board industry, up from 31.18% in 2008. According to the data of China Electronic Circuit Industry Association, the domestic PCB output value reached 29.7 billion US dollars in 2017. In this context, maintaining the sustainable development of the industry has become the consensus of the industry.

In accordance with the principles of optimizing layout, adjusting structure, green environment protection, promoting innovation and classifying guidance, the "Standard Conditions" and "Interim Measures" issued in this time form a quantitative standard system for PCB enterprises and projects from several dimensions such as capacity layout and project construction, production scale and technology, intelligent manufacturing, green manufacturing, safety production and social responsibility. Zhang Jin, secretary-general of China Electronic Circuit Industry Association, told China Electronic News: "As a participant in the formulation of the Standard Conditions, we are very pleased with its introduction. The promulgation of "Standard Conditions" has raised the entry threshold of PCB industry and provided a strong guarantee for the steady and sustainable development of China's electronic circuit industry.

Xu Xuxuan, chairman of Bomin Electronics, said that the "Standard Conditions" and "Interim Measures" were issued on the basis of full investigation in the early stage, combining the characteristics of the industry and the future development trend of the industry. In his view, these two documents set the environmental protection threshold, technical threshold and scale threshold of PCB manufacturing industry reasonably, and guide the development of PCB manufacturing industry cluster, which is a great good thing for the industry.

Liu Shaobai, chairman of Jingwang Electronics, believes that although the Specific Conditions have not implemented specific incentives and penalties, clear and quantifiable indicators have been formed for the current per capita output value of PCB enterprises, the scale of new projects and input-output ratio, key technical indicators and technical capabilities, quality management, energy saving and consumption reduction, environmental protection, safety production and other multi-dimensional operating conditions and internal systems. Citation. "In the future, judging the closure of backward production capacity and approval of new projects will be based on evidence, which will help guide industrial transformation, upgrading and structural adjustment, and accelerate the supply-side reform of the industry. This is a guide to the healthy and sustainable development of the industry to prevent overcapacity. Liu Shaobai told China Electronic News.

An analysis report of Pacific Securities summarized the impact of the introduction of the Standard Conditions on the industry. The report said that the Standard Conditions would help to improve the overall operating efficiency of the industry and establish a positive image of the industry; help to curb the development of enterprises that are blind to investment and neglect of management, improve the threshold of the industry and improve the concentration; although the technical indicators are not high, they are drum-up. The trend of R&D remains unchanged.

Green Manufacturing is the Inevitable Requirement of PCB High Quality Development

The Standard Conditions put forward clear requirements for intelligent manufacturing, green manufacturing and environmental protection. In the field of intelligent manufacturing, the Standard Conditions encourages enterprises to promote networking of production equipment and data acquisition, actively build enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution system (MES), supplier relationship management (SRM), warehouse management system (WMS) and other information systems to promote enterprise digital construction, and encourage enterprises to actively carry out intelligent manufacturing, reduce operating costs and shorten production. Product production cycle, improve production efficiency. In the field of green manufacturing, the Standard Conditions require enterprises to continuously carry out cleaner production audit and pass evaluation and acceptance; encourage enterprises to limit the use of harmful substances in electronic and electronic products; encourage enterprises to build green supply chains, establish a resource-saving and Environment-friendly Oriented procurement, production, marketing, recycling and logistics system to promote supply chain. Stakeholders should abide by industry standards and norms and encourage enterprises to build green factories and produce green products.

In fact, people in the industry have already reached a consensus on intelligent and green production in the field of PCB. Liu Shaobai told China Electronic News in an interview that the realization of PCB intelligent manufacturing can shorten the product development cycle, reduce resource and energy consumption, reduce operating costs, improve production efficiency, improve product quality, promote the process of high-end PCB industry, reshape the new advantages of manufacturing industry. Many domestic PCB enterprises have begun intelligent manufacturing. As for green manufacturing, Liu Shaobai believes that enterprises should consider the environmental impact from the location of plant. In addition, the following aspects should be considered: in the design stage, safety, energy saving, water saving and less pollution should be considered in all aspects of plant design, process design, equipment selection and raw material selection; in the construction stage, environmental protection and safety should be paid attention to; in the production stage, enterprises should also consider the following aspects. To build an advanced, complete, efficient and easy-to-implement production management system, formulate a complete and effective environmental emergency plan, implement cleaner production system, improve operation level and reduce waste, so as to consume the least natural resources and achieve greater output.

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