A new UK components association has been formed and it expects to be fully operational by January next year.
The Electronic Components Supply Network (ECSN) is the brainchild of AFDEC, the UK distributors association, which will form one of the five Network Groups within the new association.
"The plan is to embrace the entire electronic components supply network from concept through to end-of-life," said Adam Fletcher (pictured), the chairman of AFDEC.
Joining AFDEC in the network will be an Academic and Materials Research Group; a Component Manufacturing Group; AFDEC; a Customer Group and and End-of-Life/Reuse Group.
Professor Martin Goosey, Director of Loughbrough University's Electronics Innovation Centre has agreed to steer the Research Group and Dick Oram of Murata will head up the Manufacturing Group.
Appointments to head the Customer and Reuse groups have yet to be made.
Underpinning these vertical groups will be three horizontal groups looking at EU legislation, operations and compliance and sales and marketing.
Fletcher sees no overlap with Intellec which represents the whole spectrum of the UK electronics industry including components.
"Intellec is more of a lobbyinggroup covering the whole industry," he remarked. "That's why we see this as an opportunity, our remit is exclusivelycomponent related." He also stressed the new structure had bee created carefully to ensure there were no conflicts with IDEA (the International Distribution of Electronics Associations)
""Whilst this is not the ideal economic climate in which to embark on the process of launching a new trade association, I'm confident the advent of ECSN will help cross network visibility and provide focus on other pressing industry issues," added Fletcher. "Encouraging greater collaboration between organisations and providing members with more extensive quality industry intelligence can only help improve their effectiveness and bottom line profitability."
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