Few days back I happened to check the report on EHS software green quadrant, and surprised to find SAP lagging in its momentum in the list on status of different EHS applications. While looking into it, it is evident that due to transition to S/4 HANA all the enhancements or functionalities of SAP EHS slowed down if not stopped for a while. It definitely takes some time to see the all the changes of SAP EHS capabilities in new S/4 HANA platform as all the compatibility scope needs to be taken care.
I did some analysis of the same and below is my observation to achieve competitive advantage over other products in the market. It is not the case that SAP EHS do not have these capabilities and it certainly has these features but streamlining the presentation layer along with management of Workflow based approach will allow much higher usage adaptation.
Some of the Front end facing features that can be adopted include
User dashboard
• Statistics of MSDS or Label Generation / distribution information with different Fiori Tiles showing the information statics along with their status information.
• Key Statistics on Regulatory checks and notification status information – Real-time / Near real time information on various Chemical Control checks on different product lines and providing information on blocks and status. Dashboard of number of shipments blocked by Regulatory checks
• Work items and Tasks for MSDS generation, approvals – System needs to generates worklists) and responsible agent and its status. System already has the features of Change Management substances for automatic identification impacted reports. But the feature is bit cumbersome to manage on a day to day basis due to performance reasons.
• Dashboard showing number of shipments impacted due to Dangerous Goods related information – This is another feature which will help companies in seeing how many DG checks relevant shipments are there and how best to manage the information.
• Regulatory substances quantity information and type of business process – These are for the Substance volume tracking status information along with volume / tonnage information and current status different regulatory lists like REACh.
System should be able to provide detailed workflow based functionality to help the Product stewards working inside the organization
• Dashboard to checks for the new country requirements – it should be the landing page where system should be able to manage requirement for a new country. Based on SERC content different regulatory lists are checked for the country of interest and requirements can be mapped to identify the needed changes.
• Dashboard to check for the substance compliance requirements for the country – based on the compliance requirement for each country system should be able to provide the type of information that is required for country of interest.
• Workflow to initiate to set a up a new substance and generate MSDS / Label generation: A series of workflows based on which SDS authoring could be done and proper handshake happens with different agents working in the organization. System has this feature available for the EHS workflows based approach but the tool is cumbersome and it has impact on the system performance on a day today functioning.
• Triggering workflow to get up Substance header and import the Listed Substance into the system– SERC content import impact assessment can be tailored to carry out a detailed assessment for the impacted substances and their import in to the system.
• Triggering workflow to run Expert Rules and validate the generate Substance information – This is another area where based on the substance properties and status of the substances system should be able to manage the execution of relevant expert rules showing the generated worklists for the selection and management. ECC has the worklist functionality which can be managed further by improving the performance.
MSDS authoring expert
• Tool to search and checks the availability of the MSDS for a country, language combination – Existing Report information system can be used to search for substance for a country of interest
• Initiating a workflow to generate MSDS document and notification of responsible stakeholders – Sending a request for generation or authoring of a new SDS / MSDS document.
• Workflow approvals go get the MSDS document released and available for distribution – Request to check the content and release the reports based on workflow based functionality.
Customer Care Representative Role: (Using Mobile Apps)
• Customer checks the products lines online using mobile tool – Based on Mobile applications system should be able to provide applications / tools which will help in product lines
• Checks the product disclosure information for banned / restricted substances using the Mobile tool
• Checks for supply for a new region and its regulation and the compliance status
• Checks the Material Safety Data and labeling requirements
Customers
• MSDS apps which can be used to search the MSDS documents using the customer portal application or using the real time search mechanism.
• MSDS tools which is used to access and share the MSDS documents with different customers or distributors
• Product Regulatory disclosure information for certain customer
I believe many of the functionalities are already available however the implementation of Front End Presentation layer along with different Tiles will help the customers in meeting their requirement. To end SAP already on a product road map of revamping the architecture with a pyramid approach of having a launch pad with set of webdynpro based applications along with Fiori tiles which will certainly change the way the system functions in days to come.
