If you are a contractor that interacts with both the Department of Defense and “electronic parts,” it is time to grab the caffeinated beverage of your choice, crack open 79 FR 26,092, and begin the bone-tingling read that is sure to keep many supply chain managers up at night. Implementing the requirements found in the National Defense Authorization Acts for FY2012 and FY2013, the DoD’s counterfeit parts rule was finalized and published in the Federal Register on May 6, 2012. Effective immediately, the new series of regulations apply to defense contractors using, relying on, or selling to the DoD an “electronic part,” as that term is now newly defined.  Although it may spoil the ending and break the cardinal rule of reading any thriller, we provide here the “Cliffs Notes” version of the regulations’ lengthy preamble and the key takeaways of the new Rule and its proposed application.
Continue Reading “They’re Here” – What You Need to Know Now About the Chilling New DoD Counterfeit Parts Rule … and its NASA “Spinoff”