Counterfeit Materials and Products in the Construction Supply Chain : A Talk by Edward Minchin
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Edward Minchin (minch@ufl.edu) of University of Florida will present on Counterfeit Materials and Products in the Construction Supply Chain at the CALCE SMTA conference at College Park, Maryland on June 24th.
Abstract:
The media has been filled with news stories in recent years about the problem with counterfeiting, copyright infringement, intellectual property violations, the grey market, the practice of passing fake raw materials off as the real thing, bribing officials to accept low-quality products, or selling the products to a local subcontractor who installs them and covers them up before inspectors discover them. An international team of investigators spent two years conducting an investigative study that entailed 192 face-to-face interviews conducted in seven countries. Recent events include a worker killed while welding when a counterfeit "Motorola" battery exploded, workers injured when counterfeit pipes and valves failed when placed under pressure, failed concrete on China's newest high-speed railway before the $12 billion project is even completed. Also reported are older events such as workers killed in the 1980s and 90s from counterfeit steel connectors. Steel is the world's most counterfeited construction product, followed by electronics. In fact, the single most counterfeited construction name-brand product is the Square D circuit breaker. Though China is usually the country identified as the source of these problems, approximately five percent of the problem products reportedly originate in US ally nations Taiwan, Pakistan, and the UK. U.S. Customs officials interviewed as part of the research said that "construction items are not on our radar. We don't know what to look for. Please train us." The results of this research, including tip-offs for identifying counterfeits and recommendations for maintaining supply chain integrity are shared in this paper / presentation.
Bio:
In a 28-year career, Dr. Minchin has worked in nearly all major areas of highway construction. He started his career as a construction laborer with Trawick Construction before graduating from college and taking a job as an Estimator with Couch Construction Company (later APAC-Florida). Moving to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), he worked for a major construction owner in a number of capacities, including construction inspector, Project Engineer, Resident Engineer, and finally the state's Chief Area Construction Engineer. Once in academia, Dr. Minchin served as a consultant to the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) on two contracts dealing with the largest construction project in the state's history, the I-235 Corridor project through Des Moines. Finally, as a researcher, he has participated in numerous highway construction research projects for the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, the USDOT, IDOT, FDOT, and equipment manufacturers Ingersoll-Rand and Caterpillar. Dr. Minchin is a nationally-recognized authority on Construction Management, and has taught courses in Construction Law and Construction Contracts Interpretation. He has authored over 75 published papers and reports and has lectured nationally and internationally, once being awarded for the best paper at the top international construction conference - a paper based on his research of an FDOT construction project, and more recently serving as the Keynote Speaker of a national meeting of the construction industry in Beijing, China. He has been lead researcher on 13 projects worth over $1,100,000 and has assisted on several more worth over $1,400,000. Dr. Minchin also served for eight years as a reserve naval officer. His last assignment was as a battalion Company Commander in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps, earning a Naval Achievement Medal in 1992.
The media has been filled with news stories in recent years about the problem with counterfeiting, copyright infringement, intellectual property violations, the grey market, the practice of passing fake raw materials off as the real thing, bribing officials to accept low-quality products, or selling the products to a local subcontractor who installs them and covers them up before inspectors discover them. An international team of investigators spent two years conducting an investigative study that entailed 192 face-to-face interviews conducted in seven countries. Recent events include a worker killed while welding when a counterfeit "Motorola" battery exploded, workers injured when counterfeit pipes and valves failed when placed under pressure, failed concrete on China's newest high-speed railway before the $12 billion project is even completed. Also reported are older events such as workers killed in the 1980s and 90s from counterfeit steel connectors. Steel is the world's most counterfeited construction product, followed by electronics. In fact, the single most counterfeited construction name-brand product is the Square D circuit breaker. Though China is usually the country identified as the source of these problems, approximately five percent of the problem products reportedly originate in US ally nations Taiwan, Pakistan, and the UK. U.S. Customs officials interviewed as part of the research said that "construction items are not on our radar. We don't know what to look for. Please train us." The results of this research, including tip-offs for identifying counterfeits and recommendations for maintaining supply chain integrity are shared in this paper / presentation.
Bio:
In a 28-year career, Dr. Minchin has worked in nearly all major areas of highway construction. He started his career as a construction laborer with Trawick Construction before graduating from college and taking a job as an Estimator with Couch Construction Company (later APAC-Florida). Moving to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), he worked for a major construction owner in a number of capacities, including construction inspector, Project Engineer, Resident Engineer, and finally the state's Chief Area Construction Engineer. Once in academia, Dr. Minchin served as a consultant to the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) on two contracts dealing with the largest construction project in the state's history, the I-235 Corridor project through Des Moines. Finally, as a researcher, he has participated in numerous highway construction research projects for the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, the USDOT, IDOT, FDOT, and equipment manufacturers Ingersoll-Rand and Caterpillar. Dr. Minchin is a nationally-recognized authority on Construction Management, and has taught courses in Construction Law and Construction Contracts Interpretation. He has authored over 75 published papers and reports and has lectured nationally and internationally, once being awarded for the best paper at the top international construction conference - a paper based on his research of an FDOT construction project, and more recently serving as the Keynote Speaker of a national meeting of the construction industry in Beijing, China. He has been lead researcher on 13 projects worth over $1,100,000 and has assisted on several more worth over $1,400,000. Dr. Minchin also served for eight years as a reserve naval officer. His last assignment was as a battalion Company Commander in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps, earning a Naval Achievement Medal in 1992.