Supporting Conformity Assessment and Declaration Generation

A Declaration of Conformity is the output of a process involving packaging data, applicable requirements, supporting evidence, assessment, review, and approval. SAP Responsible Design and Production connects these activities while the organization retains responsibility for the conformity decision.

SAP Responsible Design and Production supports uploading and maintaining documents for packaging elements and packaging compositions. Supporting documentation can include laboratory test reports, substance results, material certificates, recycled-content certificates, supplier declarations, packaging drawings, internal assessment records, audit documentation, and other evidence.

If a supplier is responsible for providing a Declaration of Conformity, the supplier-provided document can also be maintained as supporting information.

Current SAP Responsible Design and Production documentation includes compliance-requirement support for PPWR Article 5.4, which addresses the combined concentration of specified heavy metals, and Article 5.5, which addresses PFAS concentration limits in food-contact packaging.

For currently supported requirements, the solution evaluates maintained compliance information for packaging elements and packaging compositions and derives a conformity-assessment result for the applicable packaging composition. Authorized users review the result and, where supported and permitted, adjust relevant assessment information before releasing the Declaration of Conformity.

This system-supported assessment does not constitute an automated legal determination of conformity across all PPWR requirements. The organization remains responsible for determining applicable requirements, validating the underlying packaging information and evidence, reviewing the assessment result, and approving the declaration.

The Configure Compliance Documents app is used to create and manage declaration configurations. A configuration defines packaging levels in scope, product filters, country or regional variants, language variants, and the document template used for generation.

A configuration must be active before it can be used in declaration processing. Each applicable region and language variant defined in the declaration configuration can result in a separate generated PDF document.

The Compliance Documents app provides a workspace for reviewing Declarations of Conformity for outbound packaging compositions assigned to products. Users can:

• identify packaging compositions without a declaration
• review declaration status
• review packaging and supported compliance information
• identify missing or unknown information
• review and adjust supported assessment results
• enter reviewer notes and applicable details
• release the declaration
• preview and download generated documents

SAP Responsible Design and Production generates declarations for relevant outbound packaging compositions assigned to products. This matters because a single product can use different packaging compositions based on the plant, supplier, market, revision, distribution configuration, customer requirements, or validity period. Whether the same legal documentation can cover multiple products or configurations depends on applicable legal requirements, packaging information, evidence, and the organization’s compliance determination. This course does not prescribe legal grouping rules.

1. Define the declaration scope: Define products, packaging levels, countries or regions, languages, and document template.
2. Identify applicable packaging compositions: Review outbound packaging compositions assigned to products included in the active configuration.
3. Review packaging information and supporting evidence: Confirm the packaging structure, material information, compliance statuses, documents, and validity information.
4. Resolve missing or unknown information: Investigate incomplete data, missing evidence, unknown statuses, expired documents, or incorrect assignments.
5. Review the conformity assessment: Review supported assessment results and make permitted adjustments based on approved evidence.
6. Release the declaration: Complete the organization’s review and approval process.
7. Generate and retrieve the document: Preview or download the generated Declaration of Conformity PDF.

SAP provides a Declaration of Conformity template in six languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch. Current documentation also states that templates in other languages can be uploaded.

SAP Responsible Design and Production supports evidence management, assessment activities, and document generation. It does not transfer the manufacturer’s legal responsibility to SAP.

• identifying applicable requirements
• determining assessment scope
• approving evidence
• resolving unknown or conflicting information
• confirming assessment conclusions
• approving and releasing declarations
• responding to packaging changes
• maintaining required documentation

• A Declaration of Conformity is supported by technical documentation and evidence.
• The Configure Compliance Documents app defines packaging, product, market, language, and template scope.
• The Compliance Documents app supports review, assessment, release, preview, and download activities.
• Declarations are generated for relevant outbound packaging compositions assigned to products.
• SAP supports the process, while the organization remains responsible for conformity decisions and approval.