SAP EH&S (Environment, Health & Safety) provides important functions necessary for the tasks involved in company safety, health and environmental protection. Integrated functions from the EH&S areas can be used in all parts of the supply chain of a manufacturing company, from sales, through production planning, human resources, materials management, production, plant maintenance, and distribution, to the transport of the finished goods. SAP EH&S covers concepts and functions for the areas Product Safety, Dangerous Goods Management, Industrial Hygiene and Safety, and Occupational Health.

The Product Safety area covers tasks involved in managing product safety. This includes creating and managing data required for substances and products, managing multilingual texts as phrases, generating and dispatching prescribed documents, and integrating these processes into the procedures that are in operation in your enterprise. The eight components described below have been designed so that they can be used not just directly as product safety functions, but also as an infrastructure for other SAP EH&S areas and as new procedures available in the general R/3 System.

• Substance management
  Substance management forms the basis for all other SAP EH&S functions and provides the infrastructure for further applications in the R/3 System. Using substance management, you can enter and identify all kinds of substances (pure substances, preparations, mixtures, polymers, and so on) and describe them using properties. The substance properties can be changed both quickly and flexibly. You can also extend them and arrange them into properties trees that the user can define. Compositions that are made up of preparations can be defined and maintained as required. Attributes in the form of a text are supported by phrase management. Authorization profiles that are delivered with the standard system allow you to make small differences in the access rights of different user groups.

• Phrase management
  Phrase management supports effective handling of texts in standardized modules in several languages. Phrases are managed in phrase libraries and grouped together in phrase groups. You can use phrase sets to assign phrases to the individual characteristics of substance properties. You can manage several phrase libraries. One of these is chosen as the active library in which you maintain data. Like substances, phrases use engineering change management.

• Substance information system
  You can use the substance information system to perform complex drilldown reporting for substance properties. You can display the results in lists (output methods) that you can define yourself. You can also display multilevel substance compositions. You can use the properties tree to search for properties. A number of substances can be output per report. A Microsoft Excel interface enables you to prepare and process the data for each of the substances found.

• Report generation
  You can use report generation to create any number of multilingual reports that can contain data from the substance database, from other R/3 components, and also from graphical symbols. Text modules can be integrated using phrase management.

• Report management
  Report management supports the management and release of reports, for example, material safety data sheets and labels. Using status management, you can set up a controlled release process according to your own individual needs. By adding data from an actual substance, a report is generated from the report template that is created for a certain language and jurisdiction. This report is then available in R/3 document management for all R/3 users in a company. By transferring current data (such as material number, company name and logo) this report is transferred to the final report to be dispatched. The entire report request can be triggered manually or automatically. Changes to substances or phrases can be managed using a worklist.

• Report shipping
  Report shipping is used for shipping finished reports, taking into account the relevant valid legal regulations. In addition, you can use report management to trigger the printing of reports at a later point in time. As well as the automatic triggering from within SAP R/3 SD Shipping, you can create a shipping order for reports manually. Bundling the substance reports according to certain criteria (such as envelope used, e-mail size or recipient) is also possible. Subsequent shipping of reports is carried out automatically using a date-controlled check routine. Reports can also be subsequently shipped automatically if the report has changed because relevant changes were made to substances or phrases. Reports that were created as inbound documents can also be shipped.

• Report information system
  You can use the report information system to display all reports for a substance in the form of a report tree. The current (released) version of a report is highlighted in the report display. Historical versions of a report can also be displayed. The report information system can also be started from a material for which reports are to be displayed. This function can also be used from within documents from R/3 Shipping.

• Data exchange
  You can exchange (import and export) data for substances, phrases, sources, properties trees, report templates, SAP EH&S reports, and reports from other systems. This means that you can exchange data with other (non-R/3) systems (and also exchange individual items of data if changes are made to them). You can import phrases specifically for individual languages or phrase groups. A defined interface is available for non-SAP EH&S documents that also completely integrates inbound documents into report management. In this way, the prerequisites are fulfilled for replacing old applications or structuring distributed system scenarios, since EH&S provides the basis for both structured substance data and complete substance reports.

Dangerous goods are substances and products that could pose a risk to public safety when being transported because of their properties. The transportation of your goods is therefore subject to a great number of national and international regulations. Dangerous Goods Management enables the correct handling of these regulations using the following three components:

• Dangerous goods master data
  For dangerous goods master data, SAP EH&S uses both an enhancement of the material master and the varied functions available in the substance database in substance management. Together they allow efficient and redundancy-free maintenance of dangerous goods data, suited in the best possible way to the dangerous goods portfolio and data scenario of your company.
  As an enhancement to the material master that is specific to dangerous goods, the dangerous goods master provides all the data for dangerous goods required for sales and distribution logistics. The data can be maintained directly or supplied automatically using high-performance filling. This filling function uses the legal data provided within the substance database, the dangerous goods rating that corresponds with dangerous goods laws in the dangerous goods classification, and the relevant substance data. In addition, filling enables convenient usage of external sources, such as old applications.
  You can create and manage the legal data for the individual dangerous goods regulations, such as IATA-DGR, IMDG code, ADR, ADNR, RID, or 49 CFR in listed substances in the substance database. If required, the listed substance can be filled by external sources, meaning, for example, that the contents of qualified data providers can be used.
  In dangerous goods classification SAP EH&S provides a new master data object in the substance database, allowing the creation of a dangerous goods rating for each dangerous goods regulation by simply linking to the legal data. Referencing in the substance database thus enables the system to pass this rating on to all the affected substances and therefore automatically to all the materials assigned.

• Dangerous goods checks
  In SAP EH&S, dangerous goods checks have been integrated into the sales process. The documents in delivery and transport (and also customer inquiry, quotation, and order in SAP EH&S Release 2.5 A and higher) are the starting point for the check procedure. Checks can be started automatically or manually. The information from the route stages you maintained is automatically used for the dangerous goods checks. You can use the dangerous goods checks processor to specify your own check schemata with your own configuration for selecting check modules, their sequence, and the processing of the results. The check results are contained in a detailed check log. You can lock documents with critical check results, therefore preventing deliveries of goods that do not conform to laws and regulations.

• Dangerous goods documents
  SAP EH&S provides easy-to-handle solutions for generating dangerous goods documents that are prescribed by law, and for outputting the necessary dangerous goods data on other documents required, either on paper, or as an electronic message (EDI).
  Both functions use features from the R/3 component SD (Sales & Distribution). The delivery document and packing list are extended to include dangerous goods data. Specific dangerous goods documents are managed via output control from R/3 SD and printed and dispatched automatically.
  You can use a language control to automatically output the necessary texts in the correct languages that correspond with the route stages and the appropriate regulations.

SAP EH&S Industrial Hygiene and Safety supports the employer when providing protection for his or her employees' health and safety. The SAP EH&S Industrial Hygiene and Safety components work area, exposure log, incident/accident management, risk assessment and measurement management, standard operating procedure, health and safety briefing, and site inspection are the basic modules that provide effective company industrial hygiene and safety management. Integration into the SAP R/3 System means that data consistency is automatically guaranteed between business processes, and there is no longer redundant maintenance of data. Data and documents are always kept up-to-date. SAP EH&S Industrial Hygiene and Safety can be used in all companies and industry sectors worldwide.

• Work area
  The work area is the fundamental organizational unit in industrial hygiene and safety and a central element for many processes. The company organization can be portrayed individually using the header data for the work area (short description, plant, work area type, location, higher-level work area). An exact history of individual work areas can be traced using the additional administration data. The technical organization of the work area can be portrayed using the industrial hygiene and safety data, which includes safety equipment and devices/safety measures, personal protective equipment and emergency numbers, for example. All agents/hazards that are present in the work area and their assessment can be entered specifically in the exposure profile. You can create references to existing R/3 objects (functional location, workplace, location) for the work area.

• Exposure log
  By setting up an exposure log, you can systematically record all agents that are present in your company. The exposure log can therefore combine, for example, a hazardous substance log, a noise log, and a climate log. You can enter the corresponding quantities of each agent as well as information regarding the measurements made (measurement duration, measurement description, executor, for example) in the exposure log for the exposure profile of the individual work areas. Maintenance and evaluation of data is made easier by the fact that you can choose either an agent-related view or a work area-related view.

• Incident/accident management
  In the SAP EH&S Industrial Hygiene and Safety component incident/accident management you can enter not only accidents that involve injury to persons, but also events that do not involve injury and any 'near' accidents, known as incidents. This provides all the relevant data for the accident statistics and extensive accident analysis. In addition to accident data that is not related to persons such as accident location, accident time data, damage to equipment and machines, persons involved and their roles, the system can also portray person-related data such as injuries, further treatment, time data, and cause of accident. Accident reports that are required by law in Germany, for example, can be generated directly using the data entered. Any other forms that the user requires can be created easily using the WWI Layouting Tool. Access to HR master data or business partner administration makes entering accident data much simpler and easier. In the future there will be a link to corrective action tracking in industrial hygiene and safety, allowing the monitoring and documentation of technical, organizational and/or personal corrective actions.

• Standard operating procedure
  Standard operating procedures are an important area of industrial hygiene and safety with regard to dealing with hazardous substances, working with machines and installations, or performing tasks that are potentially dangerous. SAP EH&S supports the generation of standard operating procedures for agents and work areas. The agent-specific data for the standard operating procedures is taken from the SAP EH&S substance database. Data specific to the work area is taken from industrial hygiene and safety data in the work area. Standard operating procedures can be created in the languages maintained in phrase management. Standard operating procedures that are required by law in Germany according to the German Hazardous Substances Directive (Gefahrstoffverordnung), for example, can be generated directly using the data entered. Any other forms that the user requires can be generated easily using the WWI Layouting Tool.

The purpose of occupational health is to monitor the health and well-being of employees. This is made possible using health surveillance protocols that are performed regularly and that are required by law in most countries.

Another task involved in occupational health is to document all first aid and treatment that is given in a company.

Both of these tasks are associated with a great amount of administration and many legal requirements. The SAP EH&S component Occupational Health offers you comprehensive support in this area.

SAP EH&S Occupational Health contains the following components:

• Master data
• Assignment and selection of the necessary health surveillance protocol
• Time scheduling
• Invitations
• Questionnaire (creation, entering of data and evaluation)
• Medical service
• Statistics and documentation
• Injury/illness log

The integration with the SAP EH&S components Industrial Hygiene and Safety and Product Safety, as well as with SAP R/3 Human Resources Management (HR) and SAP Organizational Management greatly reduces the amount of time needed to manage and maintain data, thus helping the company to save time and money.

By using the SAP EH&S component Occupational Health, a company can comply with legal requirements easily and at the same time optimize its business processes.