Agent
Definition
The specific or potential negative effect of a physical, chemical, biological, or other nature on the health and wellbeing of persons in a company.
SAP also uses the term to refer to hazards.
Agents have the specification category “agent.” Depending on the Customizing settings for the agent type, agents can also be specifications, materials, or tasks, for example. Examples of agents are:
UV radiation
Lifting loads
Mechanical hazard caused by lack of safety barrier
Butyl alcohol
Structure
Agent Type
An agent is identified in the system by its agent type (for example, real substance, noise, lifting loads) and the agent key.
The settings in Customizing for the agent type determine which higher-level object type it has. An agent can, for example, be a specification, a material, or a task from the
Organizational Management
(PA-OS)
component.
When you assign an agent to a work area, the system calls the input help for the respective object type. The same applies to the display of descriptions and for existence checks. For more information on agent types, see
Specify Agent Types
and
Assign Functions to Agent Types
in the Implementation Guide (IMG) for
Industrial Hygiene and Safety
.
Agent Data
The data for agents that refers to
specificationsis managed with the aid of the
specification database
(see
Exposure Management
).
If the required settings for the specification exist in Customizing, you can assign
materialsto an agent (for example, to a real substance). The system can, for example, evaluate this assignment when
determining amounts
and when creating a
hazardous substance inventory
. The prerequisite for material assignment is that the indicator that permits the material assignment is set in Customizing for the respective agent type
.
Agents that are not specifications are
not
managed in the
specification database
but in the respective application component (such as
Materials Management
(MM)
). By means of integration with
Industrial Hygiene and Safety
, you can still include them in your company exposure log, assess their risk potential, and store additional information – such as information on safe handling.
Integration
For specifications of agents that are quantifiable by measurements, you can plan and perform measurements in the
measurement management
(EHS-IHS-MEM)
component. If no measurement project was created, you can also enter the measured values in the
risk assessment
(EHS-IHS-RSK)
component.
Independent of where they were initially entered in the system, in the standard system all measured values are stored as
amounts
for the respective work area. For more information, see
Entry of Values Using Amounts
and the IMG for
Industrial Hygiene and Safety
under
BAdI: Transfer of Measured Values to Amounts
.