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Counterfeit Chronicles: Episode 3 – Tips & Tricks to Combat Counterfeits

March 25, 2024
How does your company combat counterfeit components? In Counterfeit Chronicles: Episode 3, we cover the tips and tricks you can use to successfully navigate the market and identify counterfeit activity.

How does your company combat counterfeit components? In this Counterfeit Chronicles episode, we discuss how to establish a quality control plan, red flags to look out for when inspecting components and choosing dealers—as well as how to vet your vendors—and the steps to take to report counterfeit activity so that the industry can be better off knowing where the problems come from.

This interview was edited and formatted for clarity.

Tyler Fussner, Managing Editor, Supply Chain Connect

Hello, and welcome to Innovation Destination - Counterfeit Chronicles. I’m your host, Tyler Fussner, managing editor at Supply Chain Connect, and joining me again today is Richard Smith, Vice President of Business Development at ERAI. Hey, Richard.

Richard Smith, VP of Business Development, ERAI

Good afternoon, Tyler. Good to be back. How are you doing today?

Fussner 0:31 

I am doing well. I’m glad you are back here talking to us. Today, I have a big question for you. How do I avoid using counterfeit parts? Now, I know that’s a big question, and it has many answers. So, maybe we can step back and cover the basics and help answer the big question. My first one, where we can start, is what are some of the essential measures that you should have in place to combat counterfeit activity?

Smith 0:58 

The answer to that is: You need a plan. And regardless of the size of your company or the type of operation that you are, are you manufacturing company, a distributor, a broker, a reseller… If you are purchasing and receiving electronic components, you need some sort of plan.

Now, that can be something as simple as a one-line statement or as complex as a well-researched and put together manual.

ERAI has an internal division called InterCEPT, and that’s a training and certification course. When people come to me asking questions about training, I always point them to this one particular class available on InterCEPT was called CP01, Developing and Implementing a Documented Counterfeit Mitigation Control Plan. If you take the course and do everything you’re asked to do in the course, you will end up with a document that will be your company’s counterfeit mitigation control plan.

You can share that with your superiors in the company so that the higher-level guys have a sense of what’s going on in the day-to-day operations; you can share it with your colleagues within the company; and you can share that with your customers, especially the ones that ask, “How do you handle counterfeits?”

It’s a question of identifying and committing to paper, your plan. Once again, that can be very simple or very complex, depending on the nature of your business.

Listen to the rest of the episode on the podcast player above or below, or wherever you listen to podcasts, picking up at the 2:37 mark!

About the Author

Tyler Fussner | Managing Editor - Community Manager | Supply Chain Connect

Tyler Fussner is Managing Editor - Community Manager at Supply Chain Connect, part of the Design & Engineering Group at Endeavor Business Media.

Previously, Fussner served as the Associate Editor for Fleet Maintenance magazine. As part of Endeavor's Commercial Vehicle Group, his work has been published in FleetOwner magazine, as well as Bulk TransporterRefrigerated Transporter, and Trailer-Body Builders.

Fussner's May 2022 print feature 'The dawn of hydrogen trucks' was named the best single technology article in B2B by the judges of the 2022 Folio: Eddie and Ozzie Awards. Fussner was also awarded Silver in the Technical Article category for the Trade Association Business Publications International (TABPI) 2021 Tabbie Awards.

Fussner previously served as Assistant Editor for Endeavor's Transportation Group on the PTEN, Professional Distributor, and VehicleServicePros.com brands.

Fussner studied professional writing and publishing at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has experience in shop operations, is a Michelin Certified Tire Technician, and a Michelin Certified Tire Salesperson.

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