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Page 1: RoHS+and+WEEE+-+An+Alphabet+of+Restriction+and+Opportunities+-+Your+Voice+Magazine+-+July+2006 (1)
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YYYYYour our our our our VVVVVoice Poice Poice Poice Poice Policolicolicolicolicy and Cory and Cory and Cory and Cory and CorrrrrrespondenceespondenceespondenceespondenceespondencePublisher—Gary Marble, President, AIM

Editor—Christen Jackson, Director of Public Relations and Communications, AIM

Your Voice is published 12 times a year as a publication of Associated Industries ofMissouri (AIM). Entire contents Copyright ©2006 AIM. All rights reserved. Photocopyingor reproduction in any form in whole or in part is a violation of federal copyright law. Pleaseseek the publisher’s consent before any reproduction.

We welcome your letters, articles, and comments. You can reach us at:Your Voice

3234 West Truman Blvd.Jefferson City, MO 65109

(573) 634-2246Fax: (573) [email protected]

Program Exceeds Federal Standards The Missouri On-Site Safety andHealth Consultation Program recentlyreceived notification that they continueto exceed performance standardsestablished by the federal OccupationalSafety and Health Administration(OSHA). Missouri’s performance for thelast quarter exceeded that of otherRegion VII Programs. Region VIIconsists of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas andNebraska. “This achievement reflects theDepartment’s dedication to safe andhealthy workplaces in Missouri,” saidRod Chapel, director of the MissouriDepartment of Labor and IndustrialRelations. “This Missouri program is agreat resource to all the small businessesin our state.” Missouri’s On-Site Safety and HealthConsultation Program almost exclusivelyworks with Missouri employers with 250employees or less. The program helps provide safe and

healthy workplaces for employees byhelping the employer locate and removeexisting hazards in the facility, therebyreducing injuries and illnesses. Safer workplace practices also canlead to lower worker’s compensationinsurance costs and can help improveattendance, productivity and morale. Upon request from an employer,

Missouri Small Business Safety Consultation

trained industrial hygienists and safetyconsultants visit the workplace, informand educate the employer on problemsfound and make recommendations forelimination of those hazards. This service is free to small Missouriemployers who request it, including anynecessary chemical or noise sampling. An on-site consultation may include,but is not limited to the following: • Review of an employer’s writtenstandard safety and health programs • Review of an employer’s writtensafety and health management program • Review of an employer’s OSHA200 and 300 logs for injury and illnesstrends • Evaluation of engineering controlsas necessary • Exposure monitoring for such thingsas fumes, dusts, mists, vapors, noise andother potential hazards • Identification of hazards in theworkplace and a timetable to eliminatethose hazards The Missouri On-Site Safety andHealth Consultation Program can becontacted to schedule a free consultationvisit at (573) 751-3403, or visit theirwebsite at www.dolir.mo.gov/ls/safetyconsultation/.

Affordable Health Insurance is a Click Away ....www.aimcareonline.com

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RoHS and WEEE: An Alphabet ofRestrictions and Opportunities

When manufacturers in large cities and small towns acrossAmerica hear about the global marketplace, they regularlypicture shipload after shipload of goods coming into Pacificports from low cost Asian producers. They often forget thatgoods can move across the Atlantic Ocean and that theEuropean Union is also a formidable market. Currently, thereare 25 countries in the European Union and with nearly 460million people. Trading with theEuropean Union can becomplex and as of July 1,2006, a new set ofregulations, RoHS andWEEE, became law,according to Kendall Cobb, Missouri Enterprise ProjectManager, who is working on RoHS/WEEE projects forMissouri companies. These laws limit the use of certain hazardous substancesin products or require the producer of the product to have asystem in place to dispose of the product at the end of its life.In addition to the European Union, several U.S. states andCanadian provinces, along with other countries throughout theworld, are adapting similar requirements, Cobb said. RoHS is the European Union’s law limiting the use of sixvery common substances, Cadmium, Mercury, HexavalentChromium, Polybrominated Biphenyls, PolybrominatedDiphenyls and Lead, Cobb explained. WEEE, he said, is the Union’s waste responsibility lawand it covers the recovery and recycling of electronicequipment. It makes it illegal to place these products inEuropean Union markets without a recovery/recycling plan inplace. Throughout the world, manufacturers of items that end upin electrical and electronic equipment are struggling to meetrigid environmental requirements. Companies that either areunaware or slow to respond face the loss of substantial marketsfor their products, Cobb warned. These regulations coulddevastate manufacturers who do not comply and supplierswho cannot verify the contents of their product. But, Cobb encouraged, “Those companies who comply

Harold Zinn - Corporate CommunicationsMissouri Enterprise

first will likely find new sales, revenue and market shareopportunities.” The reach of these laws is much greater than someoriginally thought. Although most of the laws target electronicand electrical equipment, it effects any organization to thosein the supply chain of those products Paul Glaser of Midwest Weigh Right has been working tohelp a company become compliant to the RoHS requirementssaid, “At first many manufacturers thought that they did notneed to worry about making sure their products were RoHScompliant; but after losing business to competitors, they are

realizing that if they do not go throughthe effort for their customers to makesure their products are RoHScompliant, their business will fail.” “We are having the worst problemfinding RoHS compliant screws andpower cords,” Glaser reported.

In response to the growing number of inquiries, MissouriEnterprise now offers a portfolio of consulting services toassist you with WEEE and RoHS compliance and withconstructing a “reasonable steps” defense in case you arenon-compliant. Particular services include: • Understanding the legislative requirements and your financial risk • Assessing your specific obligations and your customers’ obligations • Converting to Pb-free manufacturing • Reducing product failures from substantially higher temperatures in lead-free manufacturing • Managing dual inventories and parts numbering issues • Collecting substance-level data internally and from your suppliers • Reporting substance-level data to your customers and enforcement authorities • Developing a compliance roadmap

Editors Note: Missouri Enterprise is a not-for-profitcorporation that manages the Missouri ManufacturingExtension Partnership. It provides business and technicalassistance, including product and process innovation tohelp Missouri’s small and medium size manufacturerssucceed. Missouri Enterprise can be reached at 800-956-2682.

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AIM Hosts Candidate Review

Election 2006 - Key Dates

• Aug. 8 – Primary• Oct. 11 – General Election Voter Registration Deadline• Nov. 1 – Deadline to Apply for Absentee Ballot• Nov. 7 – General Election

The outcome of the 2006 election will have a serious impacton the Missouri’s business community. For that reason,representatives from business and professional associationsfrom throughout the state took part in the 2006 PrimaryCandidate Review held at AIM’s Jefferson City office onJuly 7, and co-sponsored by Associated Industries and MissouriBusiness United, Inc. (MoBiz). The 2004 election brought sweeping changes in Missouri,and for the first time in more than 50 years this state now hasa pro-business governor and General Assembly.

During the following twolegislative sessions, long-sought after reform effortswere finally passed andsigned into law including tortreform, workers’

compensation reform and unemployment compensationreform. In addition, important economic development toolssuch as the Quality Jobs Act were developed. We have made enormous progress, but the businesscommunity must remain committed to keeping pro-businesslawmakers in the legislature. It is imperative that we continueto build on the reforms of the last two years. I encourage you to learn all that you can about thecandidates running this year and discuss the issues andcandidates with your employees. Polls show that the moreemployees hear from their companies about political subjects,the more they approve of and want the information – and themore inclined they are to participate in the election process. AIM is closely affiliated with MoBiz, which conductsdetailed studies of each legislative district, including:demographics; past voting patterns; analysis of contributionsto each incumbent legislator; and a determination of whether

Gary MarblePresidentAssociated Industries of Missouri

the legislative district is Democrat, Republican or a swingdistrict. If you have questions about any candidates and theirpositions on issues, please contact Jim Kistler, AIM’s executivevice president, at (573) 634-2246 or [email protected] Your help is vital to insure that Missouri’s legislative seatsare filled with Representatives and Senators who understandthe needs of employers.

Gary Marble, president of Associated Industries, provided the openingremarks at the 2006 Primary Candidate Review, held recently at the AIMoffice in Jefferson City. Representatives from more than 30 business andprofessional organizations attended the event in preparation of the Augustprimary.

“Politics ought to be the part-timeprofession of every citizen who wouldprotect the rights and privileges of freepeople and who would preserve what isgood and fruitful in our national heritage.” - President Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Ethics and ComplianceIt’s not just a paper policyMegan PackBusiness Training Library

Business Ethics and Compliancebecame a hot topic in our culture whencorporate giants Enron and ArthurAnderson collapsed in the wake of ethicalscandals. Since then, our media seems to havebecome saturated withreports of unethical businessdealings. Just last month,Boeing Corporation agreedto a tentative $615 millionpayout to avoid criminalcharges, brought on byallegations from its employees. Toaddress this issue, Boeing announced itis placing a new emphasis on compliancetraining. While this might be a hugeundertaking for a corporation its size,some might argue they’re just followingthe law. Under Federal SentencingGuidelines - designed to encourage goodcorporate citizenship - under theSarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, U.S.employers are now required to provideextensive compliance training. Is this just an issue for large, publiclytraded Fortune 500® organizations, ordoes it affect smaller, privately ownedbusinesses also? There are a fewelements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act thatall business owners and HR professionalsshould note. The Federal Sentencing Guidelinesapply to all U.S. organizations, not justpublicly traded companies. What’s more– simply distributing an ethics policy toyour staff is not enough. Federal law nowrequires that compliance and ethicstraining session be an organizational

activity – not just a policy on paper. It’s also required that yourorganization’s ethical training be aprocess – provided periodically, ratherthan a one-time session. In the event thatyour organization faces allegations ofunethical conduct, your punishments aregreatly reduced with evidence of anongoing compliance and ethics program.

On the other hand, organizations that arefound to have inadequate compliance andethics training, face greater punishmentin the wake of any ethics allegations. Business Training Library, a partnerof Associated Industries of Missouri, isprepared to help AIM members makecompliance and ethics training a part oftheir ongoing course curriculum.

Here are just a few of their manytraining titles relating to this importanttopics - e-Learning titles: Sarbanes-Oxley: Whistleblower Protection; Codeof Conduct; and Ethics. Video and DVD Lending LibraryTitles: Compliance is Just the Beginning:3 Steps to Ethical Decisions ; Ethics fora Modern Workplace; and L.E.A.D. withIntegrity: Promoting a Culture of EthicalConduct and Compliance.

Editor’s Note: Business TrainingLibrary specializes in working withsmall and mid-sized companies. Theyoffer three high-quality trainingsolutions to help you maximize yourtraining investment: a video and DVDLending Library, a large selection ofweb-based training courses and theirLearning Management System to trackall learning activities. AIM membersreceive significant discounts on theirservices. Please visit http://www.biz l ibrary.com/ContactUs/SpecialOfferForAIMMembers/tabid/306/Default.aspx or call 888.432-3077 ext. 102 for additionalinformation.

A total of $7 million in regionalworkforce grants were recently awardedas part of Missouri’s new SkilledWorkforce Initiative. The program takesa collaborative, performance-basedapproach to provide targeted workforcedevelopment solutions for businesses andworkers across Missouri. The SkilledWorkforce Initiative will launch 36innovative projects giving the stateanother tool in its efforts to recruit andretain good, family supporting jobs.

New Worker Training Strategy “Missouri has the best workforce inthe world, and this effort will makeMissouri workers even more attractive,”Blunt said. “Our actions will match theskills and training that potential andexisting businesses need to grow, withthe Missouri workers who need

Training —Continued on Page 7

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New Product Lines PlannedCardinal Scale Manufacturing Co.

Company continues tothrive after founder’s death

He left a living legacy through a company he founded in1950 and his presence is still felt in that company today.

Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Company founder WilliamH. Perry Jr. passed away August 19, 2005, after buildingCardinal Scale into the largest independent scale manufacturingcompany in the U.S. and thelargest American manufacturer ofmedical scales, according to theScale Manufacturers’Association.

Cardinal Scale isheadquartered in Webb City withbranch offices in Atlanta, Miami,and Denver and warehouses inToronto, Canada, and Bury St.Edmunds, England.

“With W.H.’s passing, we’re not attempting to fill hisshoes; we simply want to follow his footsteps and continuehis legacy of hard work and his vision of building high-qualityweighing products which we still adhere to today,” saidCardinal Scale spokesman and advertising manager JonathanSabo. “Essentially, nothing has really changed with the goalsof the company. We’re still a family-held company andmaintain our family feel. W.H.’s strong work ethic that heupheld throughout his life is still seen in our employees’ laboreveryday. In fact, we joke that his initials really stood for‘Work Hard’.”

Since Perry’s passing the company has invested in newequipment. Sabo said two new semi tractor trailers purchased

Ann LeachContributing WriterJoplin Tri-State Business Journal

this year will allow increased flexibility in deliveries, and arobotic welder for the big scale shop will accelerate productionfor the truck scale line.

“We’re launching a number of new scales in the industrialand medical markets this year that should be strong productsfor a number of years to come and continue W.H.’s goal ofincreased market share among our competition within theweighing industry,” Sabo said.

Four hundred employees at several company locations inWebb City are building industrial scales (5,000 lbs. and over)for Cardinal Scale, smaller scales (under 5,000 lbs.) under thename of Detecto, and liquid filling devices under the name ofFuller Weighing, a maker of drum and pail fillers.

The company is ISO 9001:2000 certified and is recertifiedevery three years, with this beinga renewal year. Sabo said the ISOprocess lets the company improveand monitor their scale design andproduction. “It gives us a systemof checks and balances anddocumentation which showsespecially to our internationalcustomers that we are a quality-oriented business they can counton.” He declined to discloseannual sales figures.

“W.H. started the company when he was working forwhat was known as the Webb Corp.,” Sabo said. “The countrywas in a construction boom when highways were beingdeveloped and so were bridges and other structures. Thematerials were sold by weight. There was a high demand forupdated weighing equipment and W.H. was the one who knewwhat it would take to respond.”

The Webb Corp. authorized Perry to start his own companyproducing lighter capacity scales that Webb would then market.Sabo said that the scales sales were successful and that Perryresigned from the Webb Corp. to devote his time to his newcompany. As it grew, the acquisition of Detecto and Fuller inthe 1980’s filled a need for W.H. Perry.

“He wanted to stay a step ahead in his business,” Sabosaid. “These additions to the company allowed diversity in ourofferings and merged nicely with the original products we stillproduce today.”

Cardinal Scale maintains all manufacturing operations inWebb City and even has a Web site development business as

AIM MemberSince 2003

Jonathan SaboWilliam H. Perry Jr.

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well as an in-house print shop benefitingcorporate and dealer communicationsand marketing. Sabo said the company’sbusiness philosophy is to keep productionand design in housewhenever possible tomaintain control andflexibility over qualitystandards that W.H wouldhave wanted for Cardinal.

The company facedanother challenge when afire broke out in the east end of BuildingNo. 1 on its Webb City campus on May25.

The building is where floor scales,in-bed medical scales and some bench

scales are manufactured.“It started with a spark from a

grinder near the paint booth in thatbuilding,” Sabo said. “The important thing

is no one was hurt. Cardinal Scale nightshift supervisor Jerry Heminger did agreat job of handling the situation andgetting the fire department on the scenewithin minutes.”

The production schedule was alteredfor one day after the fire whileproduction equipment from the damagedarea was moved to a different part ofthe plant.“The east end of Building No. 1 will needextensive repair and will be unusable forsome time,” Sabo said.

Editor’s Note: This article originallyappeared in the June 5 issue of JoplinTri-State Business. Call (417) 625-6699 for subscription information.The Springfield Business Journal,parent company of the Joplin Tri-StateBusiness Journal, has been and AIMmember since 2005.

additional skills and services to be moresuccessful in the workforce.” The Skilled Workforce Initiative isfunded through the federal WorkforceInvestment Act funding and TemporaryAssistance for Needy Families HighPerformance bonus funds. Missouri’s 14Local Workforce Investment Boards(LWIB) administer the funding on behalfof local partnerships in their area. Gov. Blunt praised the strategicalliances that were developed throughthe initiative, noting that representativesfrom business and industry, labor,education, social services and workforceand economic development officials allworked together to develop projects.Community partners have joined insupporting this initiative and arecontributing more than $7.2 million inlocal resources. The Skilled Workforce Initiativeconsists of seven components: One StopCareer Center Enhancements; Regional

TrainingContinued from Page 5

Skills Gap Incumbent Worker SkillShortages; Youth Skill Shortages andCapacity Building; Business RetentionServices; Micro Enterprise Training;Support and Community WorkforceSolutions for Low Income Populations Proposals were competitivelysolicited from LWIB and scored basedon specific criteria: project design andinnovation; strategic partnerships;planned performance outcomes. Over 102,000 employers andworkers, including current and emergingworkers will benefit from the supportand training services offered under thisinitiative. It is envisioned that this initiativewill help Missourians reduce theirdependence on public programs through

employment and will prevent crime byaddressing unemployment,underemployment and lack of basicworkplace readiness. This initiative will be administered bythe Department of EconomicDevelopment’s Division of WorkforceDevelopment and builds on labor marketresearch and analysis conducted byMissouri’s Economic Research andInformation Center (MERIC). MERICprovides a variety of workforceinformation products, including RegionalSkills Gap Analysis reports that identifycritical labor and skills gaps, enablingstakeholders to better understand andaddress workforce developmentchallenges.

“Missouri has the best workforce in the world, and this effort will makeMissouri workers even more attractive. Our actions will match the skillsand training that potential and existing businesses need to grow, withthe Missouri workers who need additional skills and services to bemore successful in the workforce.”

- Gov. Matt Blunt