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Fundamentals of Implementing a Product Safety Module - Topic 2 Data Migration:

Hello,

As it is evident in all implementation projects, consultants needs to set up the master data during the initial system set up and move the legacy data. There are different methods one can follow to load the data into the system. The pre-requisite is cleansing the data and modifying the content and formatting the information into to a specified layout. There are different tools available to load the information into the SAP EHS systems. The different tools which can be used include i) SAP EHS OCC and ii) Data Editor and iii. Custom Excel templates.

The tools namely Data Editor has two functionalities called PIT and SIT. Phrase Import Tool and Substance Import Tool.  While SAP EHS OCC has similar functionality like Data Editor It has different options of loading the content with different validity / Usage area information directly from the import tool and also deleting the content and loading the information.

In order to load the content into the system it is always useful to load in sequences and parts like start with creation of Header Information, followed by Identifiers, references, Material assignments and property data and then compositions. Usually the Listed substances are created first, followed by Raw Substances / Vendor / Raw Substances. Then substances are loaded at product level.

For each of the data load there are two possibilities exist one is online load and other one is offline load. During online load system directly writes the data to the specification data, whereas during offline mode system generates a Dat File to load the information.

The sequences of steps you follows to load the data include i) Maintaining the data ii) saving as tab delimited Txt file iii) converting the dat file and importing the dat file into the system for directly loading the content to database following the step ii.

Once data is migrated system is checked for accuracy of the information and used for different substance maintenance.

Thanks 

Fundamentals of Implementing a Product Safety Module - Topic 1 significance of Data model:

Dear Friends,

One of the significant steps while implementing the Product Safety or any substance database related module in SAP EHS is understanding the data model. Data model defines how a company product is going to be represented in the SAP System. The different substance types and their inter-relationships defines the overall strategy. There are different data models available based on the company requirements like a standard data model consist of Real Sub linked to Pure Substances and Pure Substances are referenced / inheritance to pure substances. This is the data model which is used for even meeting the substance volume tracking and other functionalities. Example below shows the model 

Figure showing a demo product structure 

If you also have a DG into the overall company strategy the structure will differ with inclusion of Transport classification and Hazard Inducers information. The detail information about the different composition types and the way different components are mapped and their differentiation in to Polymers, monomer differentiation for Volume Tracking is another topic of importance to be checked while implementing the module. The strategy and direction depends on overall company direction and it should be properly analyzed before recommending a data model to an organization. 

Thanks and Regards

SAP EHS and SAP EHSM – Where to start learning

Dear Friends,

Recently SAP started its new dimensional product SAP EHSM (SAP Environment Health and Safety Management System) as a business process driven product. SAP EHSM already seen major revisions like version 1 through version 3 with a version lined up for later this year; If one intends to learn SAP EHS and be a consultant which of the modules needs to be learned is it SAP EHS or SAP EHSM. SAP EHSM consists of Incident management, Risk Assessment, Worker Safety management and Product Compliance. SAP EHS consists of all the legacy EHS functionalities like Product Safety, Dangerous Goods Management, and Waste Management, Hazardous Substance Management, and Occupational health, besides Sustainability Performance Management, Management of Change, Environmental compliance and On Demand Solution SAP Carbon Impact. The major module which is revamped in SAP EHSM is Legacy SAP EHS Industrial Hygiene and Safety – consisting of Incident management and Risk Management, with the concept of business objects (BOPF) processing framework for flexibility and speed of execution.

If the nature of the job is on implementation of EHSM Incident Management, Risk Assessment or Management or Change or Product Compliance for meeting REACH requirements its ideal to learn EHSM directly without much difficulty. These modules work independently of legacy EHS, except for Product Compliance which requires Substance database business object framework; which are desinged to synchronize with EHSM. If the nature of work is legacy EHS – Global Label Management, Substance volume tracking, Product Safety, Dangerous Goods Management, Waste Management; are implemented as SAP ECC - EHS component.
SAP EHS – Basic Data and Tools, Product Safety, Dangerous Goods Management, Hazardous Substance Management, Substance Volume Tracking, Waste management and Occupational Health. Environmental compliance, SAP Carbon Impact, SAP EHSM Management of Change, SAP EHSM Incident Management, SAP EHSM Operational Risk Management and SAP EHSM Sustainability Performance Management and SAP EHSM Worker safety management are some of the modules which are available.

Thanks

Implementing SAP EHS in current Economic Scenario... Seeing Opportunity in Difficult Period !!!

Dear Friends, 

As is evident from the market, majority of companies seeing to expand their ERP portfolio with Sustainability footprint, some focusing on entirely new implementations, some on Upgrade and some on the consolidation of their existing systems and recreating their solution landscape. So transitioning existing SAP systems with EHS portfolio has always been revolutionary, which takes entire Compliance process to next level, to a level where regulatory information is delivered more quickly, more informed decisions are made and ultimately an increased compliance and less violations is achieved. The trick is doing right with less resources and money. These transformations are almost always painful nonetheless owing to the fact that majority of the regulations or legal requirements are on continuous change.  Further many Small and Mid sized organizations find it difficult to fully understood the legalities and are in the process of developing their own work processes.

There’s no value and no reason to reinvent the wheel i.e., Business Processes. Frankly, most everything a Company needs or want in regard to a Sustainability implementation has already been done, and done well, by Sector Specific SAP Best Practices. A Company job can be much simpler and certainly less risky because of them. This is often the case with Mid Sized Enterprises, when it comes to Large Companies the implementation spans across multiple years and multiple milestones.  Expanding the existing ERP portfolio with EHS Suite is less often the innovative game, for many has become the required investment necessarily to merely re-level the playing fields. Often Business follows the Software while it is implemented so it’s often useful to implement the best practices and level the ground to meet the competition and then innovate as the days pass to achieve operational efficiency - this will reduce the risk, implement with less resources and moreover reduce the implementation cost. 

Thanks

Jayakumar 

Choosing the right software for your EHS requirements

Dear Friends,

Now that majority of companies are seeing for expanding their EHS portfolio by implementing additional software components – it needs some research and understanding which software fits to the company. Even companies are not without any software processes– they have been operating with some internal tools and other application components to meet their day to day regulatory requirement. Now that they want to move out of the legacy tools and migrate to enterprise levels – they have some solutions in mind –either develop own tool, use software as a service or use the established tool from the ERP vendors on premise. The development of custom tools may seem attractive initially but the quality depends on the ability of the resource guiding its development and has a long term liability of support and maintenance – should only be driven by a strategic requirements.

When it comes to external software components there are many of products available in the market today each one promising its own ROI. So before a product is purchased some of the questions which needs to be assessed include – 1) what I am seeing for the product to do? Like GHS reporting, GHS management in Supply Chain, Product portfolio management using the Environmental information. So on depending on the module of interest? Like when it comes to REACh am I want the system to carry out Exposure Assessment for me? Want to generate eSDS? Capture plant to plant substance management? Like that creating a list of requirements would be a good starting point. 2) Once the requirement are understood – then start prioritizing the needs like which one the company needs to manage and which are nice to have / good to have features 3) Once you prioritize the requirements then assess the software in the market by reading their product brochures and also customer demo packages 4) Once their information is understood then start working on the infrastructural requirement in terms of Hardware / Software package their availability in the market etc. 5) Besides the above there many other questions which needs to be assessed from integration, custom enhancements, performance factors, learning curve, availability of best practices etc.

Thanks

canplastics.com - Canadian Plastics - Bayer starts pilot plant for plastic manufacturing with CO2

canplastics.com - Canadian Plastics - Bayer starts pilot plant for plastic manufacturing with CO2

SAP EHS Reflections for Year 2011

Dear Friends,

I came to India for a week, I want to ensure I dont miss scribling down my thoughts on Whats in Store for SAP EHS in the Year 2011. The Year 2010 - was bit quick as far as EHS is concenred - "The Clock Really Ticked Too Fast", all the companies worked towards a commmon goal - to meet the 2010 - REACh deadline. During this period also there were some Property Tree enhancements released by SAP to support the eSDS creation and also a properietary tool from TechniData CLEO - SAP Bulk Notification Tool / Exper Rules for meeting CLP requirements - though these are not offical part of SAP release pack. SAP also released Component Extension 1.0 for SAP EHS Management - for Incident Management, SAP Carbon Impact SAP CI 5.0 version and SAP Product and REACh Compliance - enhanced version which includes Material Assessment, Business Partner, Supply Chain and Other key functionality enhancements.

There are some 3.1 Million Classification and Labelling notifications received by ECHA and around 24,675 registration dossiers are submitted. One notifceable thing is Companies made a significant effort in submitting the dossiers only few companies missed the deadlines,  - showing whatver the current practices in Industry to prepare the dossiders / CLP notifications are effective to some extent for the Dossier preparation and Dossier Submission and Classification and Notification. But these very howegrown Software Solutions will give a good opportunity for EHS Consultants in the Year 2011. Majority of the companies would have realized that its too risky to bank upon the homegrown solutions and they need to migrate that to an enterprise platform - not only to streamline their processes but also to meet other Regulations similiar to REACh. So would see more of data conversion projects, new process optimization works.

This very exercise of preparation and submission of dossiers would have shown the companies how difficult it is to meet such regulatory requirements - would like to hire / outsource some of the processes outside the Industry to manage it for a long terms -

The other opportunity is the dissemination and storage of eSDS and email confirmation of the inforamtion is received for a long term solution, Other Opportunity would come from the Labelling perspective - Companies would be making significant work on the label creation

Companies would have also recognized that meeting the Operational Compaliance for tracking the REACh Volume movements - is also not easy given the current implementation scope - would see more in this sphere too - more of plant to plant utilization and portfolio management !

Exposure management is another reuqirement for a long term solution - not many Companies utilizied the curent SAP Solution for Exposure Management - given the tight schedule to achive them - would see some more Product Safety like works been taken up by companies.

Besides above the silver lining is - Companies are advised to retain their current REACh Project Team for some more time ! Given these and also new Regulations are being enforced in other Countries - I personally see a good scope for EHS for the Year 2011. So Here's the Chance - which Favors the Prepared Mind - Be Prepared !!!

Thanks

Happy New Year 2011

Dear Friends,

Wishing you Happy and Prosperous (Health, Wealth and Safe) New Year 2011.

Thanks

Some Break Now !!!

Dear All,

I am in Shanghai, China, and surprisingly I am not able to access the blog. It seems its not allowed. Sorry I may not contribute my thoughts as frequently as I used to / wish to !!!

Thanks

Draft Changes to SDS based on PEG Recommendations is now available @ REACh EU

Dear All,

Based on the initial feedback received from PEG, ECHA made some changes in the text of Safety Data Sheet released during Feb 2010. The major changes are basically relates to initial feedback on the structure and content of the document. Some Corrections to the legal text is also made to reduce the length of the text and to need for translations text. What it means to the business‘s is that they need to consider three different versions of the Annex II during different time periods. Up to 1st December 2010, Between December 2010 and June 2015 and from June 2015 and there could also be some changes needed for the safety data going forward like incorporation of Evaporation rate, Auto Ignition Temperature, Decomposition Temperature

ANNEX II - GUIDE TO THE COMPILATION OF SAFETY DATA SHEETS is valid through 1st June 2007 to 19th June 2010, (present Annex II published with REACH)

ANNEX II - REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COMPILATION OF SAFETY DATA SHEETS PART A, will be in force from 1st December 2010 to 1st June 2015. (Annex I of commission for substances until the end of 1st June 2015 and for mixtures labeled DPD.

L133/24 “ANNEX II 4 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COMPILATION OF SAFETY DATA SHEETS PART A”, will come into force from June 2015 onwards. Annex II of 2010 for substances after 1st June 2015 and for Mixtures Labeled CLP

Full Text of legal Document and associated Excel Sheet showing, which are the recommendations which are implemented in this draft version are available @ ECHA website

SAP EH&S Data Model - Use of Compositions

Dear Friends,

One of the significant aspects to the success of Safety Datasheet Generation / distribution projects is to use and adopt the eixsting data structures. Even for meeting regulatory requirements like to manage REACh Compliance, Volume Tracking or notification management it is necessary to use of right data model. Even, if EHS Data is needed for uploading to ECHA - CLP Notification Tool or REACh - IT, then information from Pure Substances is needed. For meeting these varied requirements there are a number of types of compositions which are available in SAP EHS. So if you are into a client project / needed to manage their data structure for meeting varied requirements, the first thing to notice is to study their existing data model and judiciously use them for meeting the to legislative needs. Remember the point that the priority would be not to disrupt existing business process and achieve the project objective.


The different types of compositions encountered in EHS include, Standard Composition, Exact Composition Based on Products (ECbP), Exact Components based on Components / Starting Material, Hazardous Composition, Legal Composition, REACH Use and Exposure Composition (U&E Comp), Impurities, Hazardous Ingredients (EU), DPDPlus and Pure Composition. Besides above standard types, based on client requirement there might be other flavours too. Here's the short overview of each of the component type.

1) Exact Components based on Products – Substances that are actually contained in the product after the production process has been completed and that can be detected by analysis. Can also consist of products which in turn consists of other components. This component type is generally used by different Expert Rules to calculated secondary data.

2) Standard Composition – Ingredients are substances, that are actually contained in the product after the production proces has been completed and that can be detected by analysis. These are generally taken from ECbP composition type and added together. Thes are calculated by Expert Rules – EHS Standard Comp Rule set.

3) Hazardous Ingredients - On the Composition tab page, specify the contents of the corresponding ingredients with lower limit, upper limit, and average value. In addition, specify the unit for the selected reference value.

4) Components with Occupational Exposure Limits - List of ingredients or ingredient groups (and their quantities) that are subject to an atmospheric limit value and must be specified with this limit value in the EU Safety Data Sheet in the current version), or in accordance with the Technical Regulations for Hazardous Substances.

5) Legal Composition – It’s an optional composition type excluding all impurities from Standard Composition for meeting legal requirements lik REACh. This together with recent release of Impurties –ideally should equal to Standard Composition.

6) REACH Use and Exposure Composition – Contains all substance, which are relevant for supply chain communication. Substances which are used in Compliance Workbench for triggering Supply chain communication.


Thanks

Practical Examples of Exposure Scenarios

Dear Friends,

ECHA has long released the Exposure Scenario Format and also a modified version to incorporate Contributing scenarios based on revised understanding. Exposure Scenarios are the set of information on operational conditions and risk management measures to be communicated to the users. Generally exposure scenario consists of description of conditions suitable to ensure control of risk related to the uses of a substance during the entire life-cycle. Environment, Workers and consumers are included covering one or more exposure uses. Data required for Exposure Scenario include Substance Properties, amounts, emission factors, onsite measures, personal respiration protection, frequency and duration of exposure, frequency and duration of use etc, depending whether it is Environmental Exposure, Workers or Consumer Exposure Scenario.

However one of the challenges in using exposure format is the availability some practical examples of exposure scenarios. Last week ECHA released sample exposure scenarios constituting three substances. These scenarios are specific to Semi Conductor Industry. The lesson's learned therein like how to manage site specific conditions versus Site independent data and how air emission management could generate risk to water compartment are very much helpful to understanding the complexity of the process.The data available therein is very good source to validate SAP EH&S Data models for Exposure Scenarios and also checking suitability of WWI Templates.

Note: Practical Examples of exposure Scenarios can be downloaded from ECHA Site http://echa.europa.eu/news/press_en.asp#press20100906

Thanks

WWI Template - Some Tips

Dear Friends,

Recently I happened to work with WWI tool for eSDS template. I have quite a number of learning’s from this activity, some of them are

- Before working with WWI template ensure you know Microsoft Word 2007.

- Learning all the functionalities of how to align the page breaks, how to maintain page layout, provide indent, margins, spacing etc. This segment is more time consuming than any other exercise. So its always good to begin with good layout and use WWI layout settings with different color schema.

- Always create symbols yourself and don’t use previously created segments if they are spanning multiple paragraphs, at times repeating groups are given for the entire section and if they are not properly taken it creates problems.

- If its data from a single sub node of property tree, better to use SAP WWI Wizard functionality, instead of you creating each of them manually, it gives lot of flexibility interms of how to print etc., make use of this functionality.

- If you are creating tables with multiple components, again print them using Wizard functionality and then use the slave group and master group declarations.

- Advanced functionalities like blank compression / conditional output are very good features so ensuring when to use which functionality is a critical to template creation. Blank compression with alternative, or conditional output with alternative are very good features for printing the symbols in controlled conditions.

- Whenever you come across any template just examine a bit more – you might know more functionality like – how to print Risk Phrases collectively in another section, How to print DG information, how to insert templates based on conditional statements, inserting multiple templates in to a master template, how to print methods, how to use environmental parameters and ID listing data and how to create methods for suiting to your project requirements.

Thanks

Business Process Management - SAP EH&S

Dear Friends,

For a client project at times you need to get involved in identification of as is process or identification of the current management practices of diverse business processes. The intent of such process is either to implenent the process / optimize it or stremline or to merge different systems into a common process. These models / process show a representation of the real world process model built to a certain scale and level of details for a specific purpose. Built to show viewpoint.

Examples of predominant business processes in EH&S include i) Substance and Component management ii) Supply Chain Communication for REACH iii) Generation of MSDS iv) Permit Management v) Incident Accident Management vi) SOP Management etc vii) Dangerous goods and Tremcard processing viii) Label Generation etc.

At times its tempting to use some predeveloped business maps for a new project, however be wise in choosing such material as some scenarios are developed keeping some assumption in mind, which may not hold true for other cases. The objectives of the such model may change during the life of the project, like sometimes a model developed for one purpose might not fit for a broader requirement. There are couple things which one should remember while working on such assignments – i) Why is the process performed ii) Which objects are used/modified iii) Which technology is used iv) Which processes preceed and follow v) Which rules govern the process and which organization unit performs it.

The best approach is to select a key business item (like MSDS generation) and follow it through the process, seeing for which actions are performed and who handles and where it ends up. At time client might be having a business model but following some workaround to achive the current requirement, you need to be careful in mapping such process. Always concentrate on value of each task and check and identify the flow of process correct and check for failure paths if any and see what actions are performed, who handles it and where it ends up. This is provide you a good scenario to actually develop customer scenario. There are many softwares which support this processes like ARIS, Solution Composer, Galaxy, ARIS and other graphical tools like iGrafx.

Thanks

eSDS / MSDS management for meeting Legislative requirements

Dear Friends,

As you might know a safety data is needed for chemical products considered as dangerous to health or environment. According to REACh Article 59, the threshold of concern is typically 1% w/w (solids or liquds) or 02% v/v (gas) or 0.1% of highter for CMR, vPvP, PBT or Cat 1 sensitizers. One of the major changes in the MSDS as extended Safety Data Sheet includes envisaged exposure routes and real use patterns – coversing Exposure Scenarios. One of the obligation also is keeping records of supply of the latest SDS.
So for meeting the Compliance for REACh, Vendor MSDS needed to be managed optimally. Ensuring that new eSDS should be properly analyzed and made accessible to employees inside the organization. Whenever a new chemical is introduced its related MSDS should be properly assessed and informed to all the responsible people. I) MSDS Distribution and II) Processing of external MSDS / eSDS into EH&S are the two requirements for meeting the legislative requirements. So how to achieve these two requirements using existing SAP system ?

The first requirement – making the MSDS accessible to stakeholders – might already be in place for major companies. Like deploying into their internal websites, providing downloadable MSDS into their websites outside SAP or even providing some Document management software to access such information. In this aspect - TechniData’s EHS – WWW tool is a very useful component in meeting MSDS disribution via internet. It automatically converts the RTF documents into PDF and posts them into website, which can be accessed based on different search cabilities – simulating SAP EH&S Report Information System – though not much literature is available in public domain.

The Second Requirement - Making the assessment of the revised MSDS / eSDS requires manual process of actually going through each MSDS identifying the changes (majority it would be Uses, Exposure Scenarios and restrictions) it contains and creating required book marks and releasing it to the internal distribution group. However, the limitation would be it’s a manual process and companies desire some automation here. There are couple of options are there which are still in development stage which will take some more time to realise – like use of “mapping” databases from the local systems and use of some connectors / RFC to actually transfer the contents into SAP system, or using of technology similar to IMDS for processing the worklists to change the content. The other possibility would convert Vendor MSDS to XML files and load them directly into SAP to reflect the changes like some 3rd party data loading tools. SAP software has a in built supply chain communication to derive such information using Emails, Self Service Portals, XML plugins which ensure such processes as part of SAP REACh and Product Compliance 2.0.

Thanks

SAPinsider - Go Beyond Compliance with SAP EHS Management: 1 Best Practice, 2 Challenges, and 4 Opportunities to Reduce Operational Risk

SAPinsider - Go Beyond Compliance with SAP EHS Management: 1 Best Practice, 2 Challenges, and 4 Opportunities to Reduce Operational Risk

Converting client specific requirements into a useful tool

Dear Friends,

I am sure, many of you would have worked on the development for meeting client specific needs. At times it is very easy to hard code everything for client requirements. However, there is a wonderful furctionality called Variants – which can transform a client specific requirement into a tool for meeting broader requirements. Variants allow you to save sets of input values for programs that you often start with the same selections. Variant is like a variable inputs which can trigger varied search / program options for meeting different requirements. It is possible to store different variants for different purposes and even schedule them as required. Variants can be used either in background or via user intervention.

In EH&S such variant options are available in a sub functionality called Specification Informaiton Systems, which can provide you with different search output based on different selction requirements. Name it Set of Hits or drill down reporting or even Sepcficiation report functionality. It would be useful to explore such functionality navigating into Compliance workbench, generating different search options and save those search outputs, save the search criteria as variants and use them for drill down reporting for generating output. Create report outputs using those search outputs like Excel Output, Substance listing etc.

In future if you are into a client business blueprint or technical development sessions, look into the options of proposing the concept of variants for meeting clients current as well as future likely requirements. giving them handy tools to avoid repetitive developments again in future !.

Thanks

Carbon Sequestration mapping in SAP Carbon Impact !!!!

Dear Friends,

Fews days back I got a mail from a Research Scientist who is working on Micronutrient management in Lakes and Estunaries in Washington University, who is seeing for information on how to capture forest sequestration related calculations into SAP Carbon Impact - This is where the true difference between a Enterprise Software and a Academic Interest appears. At the onset it may seem very easy to map using some custom activity type and provide calculation to accomdate that request. Is it really required for enterprises to work? Enterprise carbon management mainly comprise of Carbon Accounting, Carbon Reporting and Carbon Management - It might easily fall under the scope of Carbon Accounting, however from a enterprise point of view it may not be relevant. This is where it needs to be seen - unlike other SAP modules - which are Industry specific or cross functional, Green House Gas Management is above Enterprise level, it is of Global in nature - how best it is managed depends on the level of details the information is captured - may be it needs to be seen how SAP reacts to such requirements.

SAP Carbon Impact is a On-Demand module from SAP, used for mapping Company Carbon foot print, identify reduction measures, carry out surveys, check for product carbon, validate highlevel company KPIs. It has three types of functionalities built around - Analyze, Assess and Act. You can Assess inventories, Products, use the Analyze to view the Dashboards and reduction projects and Act - for creation of reports, goal settings and offset inventory management. Tools to create master data like Facilities, equations, input and output and templates for reports. You can export SAP Carbon Impact data into SAP Business Objects Business Explorer - to view multidimentional analysis of the data.

Thanks