ERAI Blog

ERAI Counterfeit Photo Library

Damir Akhoundov
ERAI, Inc.

ERAI New Features and Website Changes

New Features

High Risk and Suspect Counterfeit Parts Classification Icons

Parts reported by ERAI were previously classified three different ways:

	(Suspect Counterfeit) - A part that displays one or more nonconformances and shows evidence of counterfeiting.
	(Nonconforming) - A part that displays one or more nonconformances.
	(Suspect Counterfeit/Nonconforming) - A part that displays one or more nonconformances and shows evidence that it is a used part sold as new. According to the U.S. DoD Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: Detection and Avoidance of Counterfeit Electronic Parts (DFARS Case 2012-D055) published in the Federal Register on May 6, 2014, a used part represented as new is considered suspect counterfeit.

ERAI recently added a fourth designation of:

(Federal Notice) - A part or list of parts which are publically released as part of a U.S. federal/government agency notice. These parts may require additional evaluation based on your organization’s internal risk mitigation procedures

Additionally, a new filter has been made available in the High Risk & Suspect Counterfeit Parts Advanced Search to enable users to include/omit FN parts from part search results. Please note the default setting includes Federal Notice parts.

Nonconformance Photo Library and Training Slideshow

Over a year ago, ERAI compiled a library of photographs and a search engine to enable Members to locate images of specific part non-conformances specified from a list of categories from our Nonconformance Photo Library. We then then further enhanced this search by providing a set of filters enabling Members to narrow down searches to include images of specific part numbers or parts from a specific manufacturer. We have received great Member feedback and based on Member requests and reviews, we have now improved this feature by adding the capability to create slideshow presentations based on search criteria from the Nonconformance Photo Library in order to provide our Members with a powerful and educational training and presentation tool.

The Nonconformance Photo Library Training Slideshow displays images contained within part reports culled directly from ERAI's High Risk and Suspect Counterfeit Parts Database based on criteria you select.

TO CREATE YOUR CUSTOM MADE SLIDESHOW:

SELECT THE NONCONFORMANCE CATEGORIES TO INCLUDE IN THE SLIDESHOW

Members can locate images containing examples of specific nonconformances. Select the radio button next to each nonconformance(s) category you want included in your search results and only images containing one or more of your selections will be displayed. You can select one or multiple categories – whatever is relevant for your needs. If you check more than one nonconformance category, the system will display images that include at least one of the categories you selected. You can use the filters described below to further narrow down the results based on part number and manufacturer.

APPLY PART NUMBER FILTERS (OPTIONAL)

To filter parts relative to a specific part number, please enter at least 3 characters in the part number field. Please note that this is not a required field. The search results will display part numbers that include the sequence of characters you have entered – e.g. if you search for "103", the search results will display parts that start with 103 or have 103 contained in the part number such as INA10386 or XCS10-3VQ100I. The part search will disregard hyphens.

APPLY MANUFACTURER FILTER (OPTIONAL)

A manufacturer pull down is provided if you wish to restrict your image results to a selected manufacturer. Just type in the first 3 letters of manufacturer name and the system will offer you a list of matching manufacturers.

START SLIDE SHOW

After selecting your search criteria, click on the "Start Slide Show" button. The resulting images will be compiled into a slideshow that can be used for training and education purposes. The images will be presented in a full browser or full screen format (depending on your choice of display mode). Basic part information as well as a detailed description of the specific nonconformance illustrated will be presented in draggable data popups. You can start a slide show in a full screen mode by clicking on the START FULL SCREEN SLIDE SHOW button.

The slideshow will then be launched.

SLIDE SHOW CONTROLS

During the Training Slide Show you can control the presentation in several different ways.

1. SLIDESHOW TOOLBAR

A slideshow toolbar will briefly appear on the bottom of the display area at the beginning of the slideshow. You can retrieve the toolbar at any time by simply moving your mouse cursor to the bottom of the display area. The toolbar provides basic controls such as "PAUSE", "SLIDE FROWARD", "SLIDE BACKWARD", "SWITCH FULL SCREEN MODE ON/OFF", “TURN DATA POPUPS ON/OFF".

2. DATA POPUPS

Each slide in the slideshow you create will display two data popups that provide basic information about the nonconforming part that is displayed in the picture as well as a detailed description of the specific nonconformance(s) illustrated by the picture. These popups are semitransparent and are designed to provide minimum interference with the main image that is being viewed. These popups will become fully visible if the mouse cursor is placed over them and the slideshow will pause for you to be able to read the information in detail. Upon removal of the mouse cursor from the data popup, the slideshow will proceed to the next slide. The data popups are also draggable so you can custom position them on the screen.

3. PAUSING AND RESTARTING THE SLIDESHOW

At any time the slideshow can be paused in three different ways:

Clicking anywhere on the slideshow background will pause the slideshow. One more click anywhere in the background of the slideshow will resume the slideshow.
Moving your mouse cursor over one of the two data popups will pause the show and brighten the data displayed within that data field. Upon removing the cursor from the data field, the slideshow will automatically resume.
Clicking on the "PAUSE" button within the hidden slideshow navigation toolbar will pause the slideshow. Simply move your mouse cursor to the bottom of the slideshow screen and the toolbar will appear. To resume the show, click on the same button or click anywhere within the background of the slideshow.

CUSTOM SLIDESHOW LINKS

Company Administrators are additionally capable of creating a stand-alone slideshows. These slideshows can be created upon request and you will be provided with an encoded link that will launch the slideshow on any computer that has a browser and Internet connection. ERAI membership is not required to use these custom-made slideshows and they are made available only for a specified period of time after which they will be auto-deleted.

Changed Features

Nonconformance Photo Library Search Logic Changes

You spoke, we listened! Feedback from ERAI Members stated the Nonconformance Photo Library search was too specific and required multiple searches to get many results. The issue was that the non-conformance categories were used cumulatively (e.g. if multiple specific nonconformance categories were selected, the results would only offer images that contained ALL of the selected nonconformance categories resulting in a limited data set due to the fact that the majority of images illustrate only three or fewer categories). Members would be forced to go back to refine the results and after removing some of the selected categories, more results would be attained.

The new logic revisions allow users to select any number of non-conformance categories and the results will include all images that have at least one of the selected categories assigned. The default sorting of resulting images will be based on images with the highest number of selected categories assigned appearing first followed by images with a lesser number of selected categories. This new logic ensures that the majority of searches conducted will now result with images illustrating the categories chosen by the Member. Members can still further narrow the search results by applying the part number and/or manufacturer filters.