AS5553 / AS6081 & Counterfeit Avoidance
AS5553 / AS6081 & COUNTERFEIT AVOIDANCE
AS5553 (for OEMs) and AS6081 (for distributors) are aerospace quality standards focused on counterfeit detection and avoidance. Arcadia has been compliant to AS5553 since 2008 and is certified and registered to AS6081 as of December 2016.
To be clear, Arcadia is not certified or registered to AS5553, and is only compliant to AS5553. However, Arcadia has incorporated substantially all of the relevant components of AS5553 into its Quality Management System ("QMS") and Arcadia has been in full compliance with AS5553 since late 2008.
Arcadia was in compliance with AS6081, in relation to the most important section of AS6081, testing and inspections, since 2012, and Arcadia became certified to AS6081 soon after its
registration audit December 5, 2016.
Arcadia is one of very few global distributors that has been represented since 2008, initially as a non-voting member and shortly thereafter a full-voting member, on the SAE G-19 committees that developed, and continue to develop AS5553 and AS6081.
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/AS6081 - 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 3 years 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. AS5553 was published in 2009. It was followed, shortly thereafter by the development of AS6081, intended specifically for distributors.
Although AS5553 is intended for OEM's...
and Arcadia is neither certified, nor registered to AS5553, Arcadia has incorporated substantially all of the relevant components of AS5553 into its Quality Management System ("QMS") and Arcadia management believes it has been in full compliance with AS5553 since late 2008. 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 as it relates to AS5553.
Within months of AS5553 publication, SAE G19D was formed to create AS6081...
AS6081: Fraudulent/Counterfeit Electronic Parts: Avoidance, Detection, Mitigation, and Disposition - Distributors was published in Fall, 2012. It is the most comprehensive and prescriptive quality standard of its kind, and in fact is the only widely recognized counterfeit avoidance quality standard in existence. It includes detailed requirements related to QMS, Counterfeit Policy, Counterfeit Control Plan, Customer Contracts, Supplier Approval, PO terms, Traceability, Product Preservation, Parts Verification and Testing, Non-Conforming Parts Control, Reporting, Training, and Internal Audits.
Arcadia's President...
has acted as a full-voting Member of the SAE G-19d Committee, which authored and continues to develop and refine AS6081. His role has included active involvement in the main committee, as well as multiple sub-committees that were instrumental in requirements and protocols formulation.
Arcadia is certified to AS6081, and has...
been in compliance in relation to the most important section of AS6081, testing and inspections, since 2012. Arcadia became certified to AS6081 soon after its registration audit December 5, 2016. Arcadia's registration audit resulted in zero (0) major non-conformances, zero (0) minor non-conformances, and zero (0) Observations/OFIs (opportunities for improvement). The Arcadia QMS procedure "AS6081 Fraudulent-Counterfeit Electronic Parts Control Plan" (QSP-742), provides the detailed process by which Arcadia executes AS6081 orders. Arcadia's QMS invokes AS6081 for all those orders where the customer requires AS6081.
"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