Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/339176
66 SMT Magazine • July 2014 to the new market conditions in the defense sector. This will ultimately take the form of an industry-wide push towards certification, as larger firms attempt to mitigate liability and smaller suppliers fight to keep the business of the primes and other large firms. The main points of the DFARS that should be considered are as follows: • Firms that already maintain a certification to the most recent standards such as AS5553A and AS6081 should both maintain these levels of counterfeit mitigation and encourage other firms to do so • Those suppliers which are compliant, but not certified to up-to-date standards should strongly consider certification in order to keep pace with the flow down of DFARS, as well as for the limiting of liability • Firms which do not maintain a counterfeit avoidance program should immediately develop a program that is, at the very least, compliant with current standards, and should rapidly pursue certification to these standards. This is both for the good of the firm and for the good of the ultimate customer, the Warfighter. These points should be considered by all firms who wish to remain in the defense sup- ply chain—hopefully the application of these standards will lead to the eventual eradication of the current counterfeit epidemic. SMT Todd Kramer is CEo of Secure Components LLC, an AS6081 & AS9120 certified independent distributor of electronic and mechanical components to the aerospace, defense, and high- reliability industries. To contact Kramer or to read past columns, click here. KRAMER on CoMPonEnTS DFARS FloW DoWNS AND TRuSTED SuPPlIERS continues realtimewith.com CliCk To View Video Interview Eric Miscoll, managing principal of Charlie Barnhart & Associates, discusses the trends facing the electron- ics industry, and he explains some of the newest terms that have been adopted by electronics manufacturers. A Glimpse of the Future by Real Time with... IPC APEX EXPO 2014