“Collaboration fosters innovation. By exchanging insights and experiences, companies within the defence industry can identify shared challenges and solutions, leading to advancements in production, increased knowledge and a more secure supply chain”, says Sales Manager Finland Terho Koivisto. 

We, as an industry, united in purpose, must stand together to raise awareness of the critical importance of regulatory adherence and the consequences if breach of export control appears. Understanding supply chain dynamics is essential for ensuring compliance.

As cybersecurity and protection of sensitive data is a paramount concern in the defence sector, increasing the knowledge of compliance within the defence supply chain, not only benefit individual companies but also contribute to the overall security and effectiveness of the defence ecosystem. 

“Meeting on such arenas is of the highest importance. Only by understanding the complexity of the supply chain, and the necessity to know the country of origin of all articles in your product, all the regulatory demands and ensuring access control on sensitive data, one can ensure to compliance”, says Sales Manager Sweden Janne Persson.  

The Estonian-Sweden Industry Day offered great presentations and discussions; inspiring welcome speeches from The Ambassador, the Minister of Defence of Estonia, and the Deputy Director General Head of Department for Armament and Industry, and heated pitching amongst the participants. 

“Speed dating is an efficient way of connecting and sourcing out new affiliates and nurture business opportunities, we are already looking forward to the next opportunity, then we might bring red roses as well, in addition to our decades long experience within defence supply”, says Koivisto with a smile. 

A few points to remember if you operate within the defence supply chain: 

• It is vital to conduct an Integrity Due Diligence (IDD) of your subcontractors to ensure they adhere to the necessary regulations, conduct the required audits.  
• Explain to your supply chain who they should contact if they have a challenge and the applicable consequences, if they knowingly or unknowingly breach compliance.  
• One simple place to start is to always ask for, and document Country of Origin for every single article in your products. 

Confidees commitment to compliance and export control is the reason why we are contracted and approved by Tier 1 Defence and Aerospace companies, and why we are AS9120 certified. 

Feel free to reach out to discuss how we provide our partners with compliant printed circuits for their demands. 

Another article on how to avoid the “kitchen sink”, when it comes to flowing down defence data.