Defining Material Compliance - A Comprehensive Analysis

The increase in the number of environmental regulations has resulted in great challenges for corporations in the manufacturing industry, especially within the electronic and electrical and the mechanical engineering sector. To address these compliance requirements, specialized management fields such as environmental compliance, substructures and management approaches have been implemented in industry. Recently, adherence to requirements concerning the composition of products and the use of materials and substances within products has become increasingly important and is referred to as material compliance (MC). Although the topic is of increasing importance, there is no generally accepted definition for MC nor a management framework. Corporations are thus unable to systematically address MC, and compliance violations occur frequently. We derived a definition for MC based on extensive literature research, which we subsequently evaluated in a quantitative survey. Our results indicate that MC is commonly understood as the adherence to requirements concerning the composition of a product and the use of substances and materials within products. By proposing a definition for MC, we aim to introduce a common understanding, enable future research to systematically address the topic and develop a framework for the management of MC.