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!
