Chapter 13

Environment, Health & Safety

The SAP Development Project EH&S

Environmental protection, health, and safety in the industrial arena have
become a focal point of public interest in recent years. Legislators have
passed a multitude of laws and regulations in order to minimize hazards
encountered during the manufacture and handling of substances.

The large number of substances used or manufactured within a company Substances

and their manifold properties relevant to safety and environmental protec-
tion play a crucial role. Industries directly affected are the chemical industry
as well as all other types of corporations that process, use, store or transport
chemical products.

Environmental protection and safety closely interface with a number of Integration

business applications:

‰Materials management

‰Distribution

‰Production planning and control

‰Maintenance

‰Quality management

‰Human resources

This high degree of integration led SAP users from the chemical industry to Importance of EH&S
call for an SAP solution. SAP’s contact with the process industry had been
intensified during the development of the PP-PI module. Preliminary re-
quirements on an EH&S solution were defined in workshops conducted by
the German Association of Chemical Industries. However, requests for an
EH&S solution also came from SAP customers in the automotive industry,
mechanical engineering, utilities as well as transportation companies. For
this reason, the EH&S system is designed for use across all sectors of indus-
try.

Before the development project got underway, SAP actively pursued close Partners in Industry
cooperation with its partners in industry. In the planning and detailed de-
sign phases, SAP was able to work with a number of major corporations
from the chemical industry.

13-1
13 Environment, Health & Safety

Overview of Functionality
Release Policy The following functionality will become available as part of Release 3.0E:
‰Substance database

‰Phrase management

‰Flexible substance reporting including MS-Winword integration

featuring:

 Material safety data sheets

 Labels
 User-defined substance reports
‰Substance information system

‰Shipment of material safety data sheets from SD

‰Management of inbound material safety data sheets

Substance Database The substance database is used by the EH&S system to store various types of
information. It is not only used to store substance identifiers but also compo-
sitions, physical, chemical, and toxicological properties, substance classifica-
tions, an array of instructions (first aid, handling, storage, etc.) plus informa-
tion on the inclusion of substances in statutory lists.

Aceton
 Substance master (technical)

Characteristic Type Substance: Methanol

Property Value Condition
 Substance property Boiling point 56,5 oC 1 bar
Vapor pressure 128 hPa 20 oC
Flash point 12,0 oC

Substance to be monitored: Super glue

 Substance listing Acetone
Methyl alcohol

Acetone (techn.)
Analysis Acetone 98,0 %
_______
 Composition _______
_______
Methyl alcohol 1,3 %
___ Water 0,6 %
Residual 0,1 %

Risik-records
 Phrase library R12 Highly inflammable
R23 Poisons by inhalation

Fig. 13-1: Elements of the substance database

Flexibility of the It also became clear that, in some applications, substance-related information,
Substance Database as described above, can be so varied as to make the implementation of prede-
fined data structures impossible. Use of R/3’s cross-application classification
system enables a flexible approach to the definition of substance properties.

13-2
 Environment, Health & Safety 13

You can define any given properties (classes) using any number of fields
(characteristics). The EH&S module can be shipped with a number of standard
substance properties. These standard substance properties can be added to as
required; with “upward compatibility”, every customer system can be en-
hanced to include customer-specific properties.

Many substance properties base on textual information. During the devel- Phrase Management
opment of the substance database, it has proven very useful to manage these
texts as so-called “phrases”. In this context a phrase is a standard text mod-
ule.

You can use substance reporting to create substance-related documents such Substance Reporting
as material safety data sheets, TREMcards, labels and others. Microsoft
Word Version 6.0 (Winword) is integrated with the EH&S system for this
purpose.

SD shipment of material safety data sheets comprises MSDS shipment, a Shipment of Material Safety
complete shipment log as well as automatic distribution of revised material Data Sheets from SD
safety data sheets in accordance with legal requirements.

Management of inbound material safety data sheets enables storage of Inbound Material Safety
scanned MSDS as well as the recording of identifiers and selected properties Data Sheets
in the substance database.

The next development phase will include hazardous goods processing from Planned Functionality
SD. SAP plans to continuously enhance EH&S functionality provided by
R/3. Preliminary studies for the next design phases have already been initi-
ated.

Substance Database - Overview

In EH&S, the term “substance” refers to a chemical or group of chemicals, Definition
that is, a chemical element, a chemical compound or a mixture of the two.

A substance may be a natural substance, come into existence during manu-

facture or be an ideal substance (a substance not found in reality). It may
consist of several substances (preparation, compound or solution) or be a
pure substance. A substance may be used to categorize common properties
(substance group).

A substance is normally assigned to several materials. The material carries Material /Substance
information relevant to logistics and the substance carries data on substance Relationship
properties. A substance distributed in various packaging sizes or trading
units does not vary as far as its properties are concerned. However, data
such as price, weight, dimensions, will differ. The figure 13-2 illustrates
possible material/substance relationships.

13-3
13 Environment, Health & Safety

Material Relationship Substance

1:1 Acetone p.a.

Acetone p.a.
Synthetic
resin
Super 1:n
glue
Hardener

SAE
SAE
15-W40 n:1 SAE
15-W40
Oil Oil 15-W40
Oil
1 liter 5 liter SAE 15-W40

0:1 Salts of chromium

Fig. 13-2: Substance / material relationships

Substance Identification
A substance identification is an identifying description of a substance. As a
rule, an identification consists of several identifiers. One identifier is not
sufficient to ensure unique identification. Only a combination of several
identifiers guarantees unique identification.

Substance Identifiers A substance identifier is characterized by its identification type and identifi-
cation category. The identification type specifies the data type, whereas the
identification category defines the precise meaning of the identifier. The
following three identification types exist:

‰Names

‰Numbers

‰Chemical formulas

Names Standard name categories such as IUPAC names, trivial names, and syno-
nyms are supported by EH&S.

Numbers Numbers are derived from various official substance registration systems.
Each new substance is, for instance, included in the Chemical Abstract
Service (CAS number).

Chemical Formulas The third identification type are chemical formulas. EH&S is configured for
empirical and structured formulas. SAP plans to connect EH&S to the R/3
document management system, enabling you to store graphics of, for in-
stance, two or three-dimensional structural formulas for a substance.

13-4
 Environment, Health & Safety 13

The figure below illustrates the structure used for substance identification.

Identification
Trade name
Identification type Identification category
IUPAC
Names Name category Synonym
CAS-number
ID-Keys ID key category Index- number
Internal number
H
X Grafik H CL

Formulas Category of formulas H O

N= =
O
H

Molecular formular

Fig. 13-3: Substance identification - structure

Substance Properties
A substance property provides information on a substance either as a nu-
merical value, with the appropriate unit of measure, or as a text.

This information can be linked to further details, such as the source of the
information, method of determination, etc.

Substance properties can be grouped, for example, according to:

‰physical properties

‰Chemical properties

‰Toxicological properties

‰Ecological properties

‰First aid measures

‰Safety instructions

‰Hazard ratings, etc.

As a rule, a substance property consists of more than one item of informa-

tion. A physical property may consist of several characteristics, for instance,
a numeric value range (maximum and minimum value), an accuracy re-
quirement in form of a +/- deviation, one or more parameters, a method, etc.

EH&S uses the R/3 classification system to define substance properties. In Classification System
the language of the classification system, a substance property is represented
by a class. You can assign any desired number of characteristics to a class.

13-5
13 Environment, Health & Safety

Substance Characteristics
The values you record for a substance property are stored as substance char-
acteristics. You can maintain any number of substance characteristics for a
substance or substance property. The sources, methods or one or more of the
parameters (for example, the pressure at which the boiling point was deter-
mined) may differ for the various substance characteristics.

The figure below illustrates the method used to represent substance proper-
ties.

Substance Properties Valuation

Benzene Melting point No.: 1 -3 oC 1013 mbar DIN 1243

No.: 2 2 oC 1200 mbar DIN 1243

Flash point No.: 1 87oC ISO 1812

Safety No.: 1 S2 Keep away from children...

instructions S13 Keep away from food ...
..

Super glue Flash point No.: 1 124 oC ISO 9876

No.: 2 130 oC DIN 1234

Fig. 13-4: Substance property - structure

Enhancement The main requirements on the substance database are its flexibility and
scope for enhancement. The use of the R/3 classification system enables the
user to enhance the substance database by any desired number of properties
featuring any desired structure.

Substance Compositions
The substance composition is a listing of all substance components and their
respective concentrations in substances consisting of several components.

Substance components are those substances that remain components of a

substance after the manufacturing process has been completed.

Substance Composition The level of detail required for a substance composition listing varies de-
Category pending on the intended usage and recipient. The details contained vary as
far as the listed components and the required accuracy of the quantitative
values are concerned.

Composition categories, might, for instance, be:

‰Precise chemical composition

‰Composition compliant with TSCA (Toxic Substance Control Act)

13-6
 Environment, Health & Safety 13

In order to describe a real substance, it is often necessary to describe the Substance Listing
substances used to obtain the real substance or those that it contains or may
release.

For this purpose, substance listings, that is, the specification of substances for
a substance are used. This is a listing of substances without any quantitative
details. Example of substance listing categories are:

‰Substances to be monitored at a work center

‰Decomposition products released by heating

A substance may have many properties in common with other substances. Substance Reference
The substance database enables you to create references between substances.

Properties Tree
The properties tree makes controlled navigation between the many sub-
stance properties possible. The properties are structured using the properties
tree. You can define any number of grouping levels (nodes) between the
individual properties (end nodes) and a substance (root).

Fig. 13-5: Properties tree

13-7
13 Environment, Health & Safety

If requested, EH&S is supplied with a standard properties tree. Using Cus-

tomizing, you can define properties trees that display any desired structure.
You can, for instance, use this functionality to create trees for specific tasks
(departmental trees) or individual (user-specific) properties trees.

Phrase Management
Phrase Libraries EH&S enables you to maintain any number of phrase libraries.

Import/Export of Phrases
EH&S provides you with an import/export interface that you can use to
import commercially available phrase libraries. Using this interface, you can
also transfer modifications made to phrase libraries. The original phrase key
is maintained in the EH&S source library for this purpose. You can exchange
phrase libraries using the combined export/import function.

Translation All textual information on a substance must be translated into the national
languages of the countries with which your company does business. EH&S
phrase management enables the language-dependent storage of all texts
assigned to a phrase and controls their translation. The figure below shows a
phrase and its translations.

Fig. 13-6: Maintenance of phrase texts and translation

13-8
 Environment, Health & Safety 13

Substance Reporting
Documents created using the substance database and especially those Requirements for
addressing external recipients, require the functionality provided by modern EH&S Documents
word processors. EH&S provides features such as the insertion of graphics
files such as logos, hazard symbols, pictograms as well as color printing,
tables, etc.

Due to the multitude of documents required, users must be able to individu-

ally define document layouts and contents.

EH&S substance reporting uses Microsoft Word Version 6.0 (Winword), Winword Integration
with which the user can layout documents then assigning data proposed by
the substance database to certain areas of the document.

The following examples are intended to provide you with an impression of Examples
the features provided by EH&S substance reporting:

‰Hazardous substance label (multi-lingual)

‰Material safety data sheet pursuant to EU guideline

Fig. 13-7: Hazardous substance label (multi-lingual)

13-9
13 Environment, Health & Safety

EC Safety Data Sheet

Date of issue: 12.05.96 13:45 Page: 1/1

1. Identification of substance / preparation and of the company / undertaking

Information about product:
Tradename:
Super Solvent A

Information about manufacturer / supplier:

Company
TechniDATA
D-88677 Markdorf
Phone number: 07544/5095-0

Emergency phone :07544/5095-0

2. Composition / information on ingredients

Hazard symbols R-phrases Index number Concentration

Super Solvent A T F R 11-23/24/25 608-001-00-3 20 - 30 %
Benzyl amine C R 34 612-001-00-3 < 15 %

3. Hazards identification

Highly flammable, toxic by inhalation, in contact with skin and if swallowed.

4. First aid Measures

General advice : Take off all contaminated clothing immediatly.

Move to fresh air.
Skin contact : Wash off with plenty of water.
Remove contaminated clothing.
Eye contact : Rinse with plenty of water. Keep eye wide open while rinsing.

5. Regulatory information
Classification : Has to be labeled
according to EEC
directives

Hazard symbols : F Highly flammable

T Toxic

R-phrases : 11 Highly flammable

23/24/25 Toxic by inhalation, in contact with skin and if swallowed.
S-phrases : 16 Keep away from sources of ignition - No smoking
27 Take off immediately all contaminated clothing.
44 If you feel unwell, seek medical advice (show the label
where possible).

Fig. 13-8: Material safety data sheet compliant with EU guideline

13-10
 Environment, Health & Safety 13

Material Safety Data Sheet Processing

Material safety data sheet processing comprises the creation, management
(version storage) as well as the automatic shipment of material safety data
sheets. The system reacts to relevant MSDS revisions and automatically trig-
gers their distribution.

Apart from the shipment of material safety data sheets, you can also use
material safety data sheet processing for the management of inbound MSDS.

The shipment of material safety data sheets is triggered automatically from Integration with Logistics
SD sales or SD shipment. Shipment is controlled by the requirements that
apply to the appropriate jurisdiction (such as OSHA, Occupational Safety
and Health Administration).

You can distribute MSDS by mail, fax EDI, or CD. The system automatically Performance Features
selects the valid MSDS version for the country/language variant. You can
choose color or shading options. If you want to send several MSDS to one
recipient, the system automatically bundles them into one shipment. MSDS
processing also features subscription management that enables you to send
MSDS to interested parties (public authorities, institutes, etc.) with which
you have no business relationship.

The SAP EH&S development project provides software support for business
processes in those areas of environmental protection and occupational health
and safety that interface with SAP R/3 business transactions.

Which main features does the first EH&S release provide?

EH&S Release 3.0 provides you with a substance database, phrase

management, as well as substance reporting functionality integrated with
Microsoft Word.

How is EH&S integrated with other R/3 modules?

EH&S Release 3.0 is linked with the R/3 material master records. You can
trigger automatic MSDS shipment in SD. EH&S can be used to manage and
record inbound MSDS.

13-11