Explaining the Unpackaged Product - Compliance View and Basic Compliance Data

Get an overview on the process to create and edit the compliance view of an unpackaged product.

Safeguarding compliance of products is the major goal of product compliance. Since most regulations or legal obligations do relate to the chemical level of the product, the unpackaged product is the focal point in product compliance. This is different especially for dangerous goods assessments. Here the product's packaging and packed quantities must comply with dangerous goods regulations.

Picking up requests from logistics for new products or for business extensions, for example when selling a product to a new market are every day's tasks of the product stewardship specialist - product compliance. The product stewardship specialist assigns compliance purposes to the compliance view of the unpackaged product to initiate compliance assessments.

The compliance view, being the focal point of product compliance, comprises of all product related data necessary:

Assigned products model the integration with product master in logistics.

Assigned applications specify how a product or raw material is used, such as cosmetic, detergent, or industrial chemical.

Applications are an important criterium for assignment of compliance requirements as well as processing compliance assessments, especially when it comes to applying exemptions.

Assigned uses - this can be recommended or restricted uses, such as antioxidant, defoamer, emulsifier, or stabilizer.

Assigned Markets and Production Countries/Regions are most important to derive compliance requirements for assignment - this goes along with applications and uses.

Assigned Compliance Purposes relate to the compliance requirements to be assessed for the compliance view. A compliance purpose groups compliance requirements, for example according to a business process such as "Sell in",  "Produce in", or "Transport in", according to product groups, or to regional aspects like Europe, North America, or Asia.

You can define default compliance purposes for products, which are assigned automatically upon creation of a new compliance view.

Compliance Purposes can also be assigned manually, based on

• Assigned markets and production countries/regions;
• Product group, which refers also to assigned applications and uses.

Assessment of compliance requirements and evaluation of a product's compliance status is the principal task in product compliance. 

Compositions allow to dive into the important level of chemical substances, which are key for assessing numerous compliance requirements. Most prominent compositions are

• Material-based Composition - here we distinguish before and after production, which is significant in case of chemical reactions or physical changes. The material-based composition before production is most frequently manually derived from the production bill of materials (BOM).
• Analytical Composition - this composition brings us to the chemical perspective of a product: the level of chemical substances. The analytical composition is derived from the material-based composition after production.

Properties provide basic information on various matters such as

• physical-chemical, or safety related data with melting or boiling point, density, or flash point
• Toxicological, or ecological information

Compositions and Properties provide essential information for processing the assessments of many compliance requirements, for example for product marketability but also for dangerous goods classification.

Attachments allow to store documents right with the compliance view.

Create the compliance view for a new (unpackaged) product, assign products in product master.

In the Manage Basic Compliance Data – Unpackaged Products app, you get an overview on your unpackaged products.

Utilize the search to retrieve a specific product by name, the assigned product or the product group.

If you have a new unpackaged product, you use the action Create.

When you create a new unpackaged product, give it an internal name.

The system proposes the logistics roles Produced, Sold and Transported.

At least one of the roles Produced or Sold is mandatory for unpackaged products.

The role Transported is mandatory if the role Sold is assigned.

You can add logistics roles as required.

With the now created compliance view of your newly created unpackaged product, you can maintain basic compliance data, which comprises of:

• Compliance View Header

  This is the initial information of a compliance view with the internal name, number, and logistics roles.

• Assigned Products

  This is key for the integration with logistics and accessing compliance data in checks or for output on documents.

• Application, Uses

  The application describes, how the product is used.

  Uses can be related to legal areas and are more specific.

• Markets

  Markets specify countries/regions for production and where to be sold.

• Compliance Purposes

  Assignment of compliance purposes, define which compliance requirements need to be assessed.

• Compositions

  For products the material based composition is essential with the ingoing raw materials.

• Properties

  Maintain primary data on physical-chemical or safety related properties of the unpackaged product.

• Attachments

  Upload documents or add links to access additional information for the unpackaged product.

To integrate the unpackaged product’s compliance view with logistics, you assign related products:

• products in product master for the unpackaged product; these products can serve as initial point for packaged products, for example, by filling processes;
• along with assigned packaged products, you create specific compliance views.

You can assign additional logistics roles to the compliance view of a packaged product, which automatically will be propagated to the compliance view of the unpackaged product.

With the assignment of applications, uses, markets and compliance purposes to your product, you initiate compliance assessments.

In the section Assigned Applications, you can assign applications using the action Add.

You must be aware, that applications are valid generally and relate to how the product is intended to be used.

With the action Create in the section Assigned Uses, you can create uses, which can be more specific. You can assign uses specific for a legal area and you can distinguish recommended uses and restrictions on uses.

Assigned compliance purposes of an unpackaged product:

• can be added manually using the action Add;
• Product Default compliance purposes are assigned automatically upon creation of a new unpackaged product.

Get the initial analytical composition of your product calculated from the released material-based composition.

Upon creation of a new unpackaged product, compositions with status In Progress - Initial Version are automatically created for:

• Material-based composition – here we distinguish before and after production to take chemical or physical changes into account
• Analytical composition

Remark: In case you need to maintain legal area-specific compositions, you must define legal areas as prerequisite.

In the material-based composition before production, using the action Create, you assign the components - raw materials or intermediate products - used for production of the unpackaged product.

You can maintain concentrations as exact values or with a concentration range.

In the initial data maintenance, the material-based composition after production is automatically created by copying from the "before production".

You can now identify components contained in the product or not contained, for example due to chemical reactions or physical changes.

Similar, you can add produced substances, for example due to chemical reactions.

As soon as you release the material-based composition, composition calculations are started automatically to calculate the product’s analytical composition.

You check the calculated analytical composition and adjust concentrations if required.

Then, you release the analytical composition of the unpackaged product. The release will initiate automated compliance calculations.

With release of the analytical composition, dependent objects – compliance requirements targeting on substances – are automatically determined. Compliance calculations are started automatically.

Calculated compliance assessments resulting in the status Compliant are released automatically.

In case, there is data missing for compliance calculations, for example the assessment of a substance is not yet released, or the assessment requires expert decision, the assessment remains in status In Progress.

Edit the default properties of an unpackaged product, upload attachments and get an overview on further action available on the unpackaged product's compliance view.

Upon creation of a new unpackaged product, three property groups are assigned by default.

Using the action create, you can assign additional property groups.

When you edit properties, you can:

• Assign predefined phrases, providing textual statements, with translations from the system embedded regulatory content.
• Enter numeric values, for example for the density or flash point.
• Add Notes, which are free texts, so there are no translations available.

When you finished editing data, do not forget to release the data to make it available for consuming processes, in the example to output the flash point in dangerous goods texts.

You can add attachments to the unpackaged product and same, for example, to the properties.

Attachments can be:

• Uploaded files
• Added links

The work view provides a combined view on properties and compliance assessments.

You can define your own work views with content to suit your tasks.

This is the navigation to compliance assessments for the solution areas product marketability, safety data sheets and dangerous goods.

With this action, you can add logistics roles to the compliance view, which are not assigned yet.

Find admin data for the compliance view:

• Last change user and date
• Internal number of the compliance view
• Responsible units