Summarizing Product Compliance and related Market Challenges

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Explain product compliance and related market challenges.
  • Describe best practice content, scope items, and supported Roles.
  • Summarize and find additional resources.

SAP Product Compliance

For customers manufacturing or selling regulated or hazardous products and components who need to stay on top of regulatory requirements and their competition, SAP S/4HANA for product compliance is the integrated solution that helps secure revenue and protect the brand, reduce risk and compliance cost, and improve on-time delivery. Unlike point solutions, SAP S/4HANA for product compliance enables compliance throughout the product lifecycle, with automated compliance processes, integrated compliance checks in business processes, and automated creation and provisioning of compliance information and documents.

What is Product Compliance?

CapabilityDescriptionValue Proposition

Product marketability and chemical compliance

Ensure compliant products and the right to market / sell for any kind of product, esp. chemicals or products which contain chemicals, e.g. industrial chemicals, consumer products, food-related, cosmetics, electronics, cars, helicopters.

Protect your brand, secure revenue, and reduce time to market with compliant products.

Dangerous goods management

Ensure compliant transport for any hazardous product or product with hazardous ingredients, e.g. industrial chemicals, combustible liquids, paints, batteries, glue, cleaner, printer cartridges.

Improve on-time delivery of your goods with compliant transport for any hazardous product or product with hazardous ingredients.

Safety data sheet and label management

Ensure compliant hazard communication for any hazardous product or product with hazardous ingredients, e.g. industrial chemicals, combustible liquids, paints, glue, cleaner.

Protect workers, people, and the environment with compliant hazard communication for any hazardous product or product with hazardous ingredients.

Illustration of the product lifecycle highlighting SAP S/4HANA product compliance integration with stages such as innovation, design, and delivery, relating to solution areas product marketability, dangerous goods, and safety data sheet and label management. The world map and a network graphic in the background symbolizing global interconnectedness.

SAP S/4HANA for product compliance allows you to ensure compliance throughout the lifecycle with automated compliance processes.

Specifically it allows you to streamline product development by safeguarding product marketability and successfully deliver your products to market with safety data sheet, label management, and dangerous goods management.

Market Challenges

Illustration listing today's market challenges regards product compliance. How can companies successfully manage these market challenges and how can software help with that?

Compliance requirements

It is important to consider compliance already in development. Software that embeds compliance in product development can help manage the different requirements and ensure that only products are developed that comply with these requirements. By leveraging regulatory content, you can then stay up to date with all applicable regulations.

Complex supply chains

Software can help to streamline communication along the supply chain and to manage supplier information to further reduce the effort for product stewards.

Stakeholder demands

With analytics software, SAP can make this and other information accessible throughout the company. This and the automation of compliance document creation and distribution, helps fulfill stakeholder expectations. Product compliance is not limited to development; it must be ensured throughout the product lifecycle. 

Individualized products

With the trend to individualized products, the number of different products is increasing. Therefore, it is important to automate processes such as the compliance assessment. SAP software has the functionality to automatically classify products and determine compliance and warn in case of violations.

Resource constraints

Software that embeds compliance and controls in the corresponding business processes and automates the compliance work, helps to ensure compliance and to reduce effort.

Illustration on managing product compliance challenges through digitalization, as embed compliance across product lifecycle, streamline communication, enhance information accessibility, automate compliance assessment, and increase resource efficiency.
Table showcasing three main goals from the CEO perspective: Enable revenue growth, Protect brand, and Reduce compliance costs. Each goal contains key points.

Capabilities and Features 2022

Illustration outlining the capabilities and features of SAP S/4HANA for product compliance - On-Premise 2022.
Diagram illustrating the SAP Best Practices content for SAP S/4HANA (on premise) as a key component of SAP Activate implementation methodology with related scope items providing optimized ready-to-run business processes.

SAP Best Practices package for SAP S/4HANA (on premise) includes a selection of scope items covering the scope of pre-configured ready-to-run business processes that let you choose the capabilities and options of the solution, such as business processes, analytics content.

Scope items are typically predefined business processes, such as Assess Marketability of a Product. They represent a best-practice implementation choice for a customer. Each scope item includes a set of accelerators, such as process flows, test scripts, sample data, configuration, delivering detailed documentation that is used during the implementation project.

Each scope item has a unique ID that makes it easy to identify, for example, 31H for Assess Marketability of Product or 31J for Chemical Compliance in Sales.

Note

For full scope and accelerators, check the SAP Best Practices Explorer at https://rapid.sap.com/bp/.

Best Practice Content and Scope Items

Screenshot highlighting the Product Compliance scope items under the Solution Scope tab of SAP S/4HANA best practice packages.

The solution SAP S/4HANA Cloud for product compliance comprises of 9 assigned scope items providing functionalities to:

  • Manage Compliance Requirements and Compliance Purposes
  • Maintain basic compliance data, assess compliance requirements and document the assessment results; based on system integrated Regulatory Content
  • Furthermore, functionalities integrated in logistic processes allow checks and output of compliance information, that is, Product Compliance checks, output of Dangerous Goods data on logistic documents or automated shipment of Safety Data Sheets
  • Analytic capabilities complete the set of Product Compliance capabilities

Note

For full scope and accelerators, check the SAP Best Practices Explorer at https://rapid.sap.com/bp/.
Table listing the product compliance solution areas product marketability, scope items, and descriptions.
Diagram of SAP S/4HANA for product compliance showcasing supported business roles and personas.
Illustration on Product Compliance Business Roles and Scope Items detailing various responsibilities and roles.

Key Solution Areas - Business Integration

Screenshots showing compliance requirements for product compliance solution areas Safety Data Sheets, Dangerous Goods, and Product Marketability.

Value proposition

  • Reduce time to market and extend marketability
  • Improve on-time delivery with up-to-date product declarations and documents

Capabilities

  • Names and numbers for 320 000+ listed substances
  • Product marketability
    • 140 compliance requirements with regulatory content
    • Additionally 67 compliance requirements for documentation only
  • Dangerous Goods
    • 14 compliance requirements
    • Additionally 1 compliance requirement for text-based classification
    • Extensions for enclosure-specific list data, organic peroxides, and self-reactive substances
  • Safety Data Sheets
    • 102 compliance requirements for SDS management, each one is assigned to one country
    • 95 compliance requirements for SDS related assessments
    • 92 compliance requirements for occupational exposure limits
  • Standardized texts: 9200+ phrases and their translations
  • Graphics: 790+ standardized graphics
  • Updated with every release, continuous update for phrases

Note

You can find more detailed information on SAP Content for Product Compliance in the SAP Help Portal at https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_ON-PREMISE/35751be3d6ee423197492574e016a512/08db72bf9f8e4cc58b5e8f97c0285458.html?q=customer%20compliance%20check.

From https://help.sap.com/S4_OP_PC, navigate to Product Compliance → Product assistance documentation → Foundation for Product Compliance → SAP Content for Product Compliance.

Please also see the 3E website:

First screenshot showing Unpackaged Product - Material-Based Composition page with the selected Before Production tab representing the starting point of compliance processing. Second screenshot showing the Compliance Information - For Products page with compliance status regards product marketability on the selected Sales View tab.

Data management

  • New data model: compliance data on multiple levels, re-use with role concept
  • Task-based: support user to prioritize
  • Composition management: input/output view, analytical view, legal deviations; automated (re)calculation

Compliance assessment

  • Version concept: multiple regulation editions, in-process/released data records
  • Automated (re)calculation of compliance status (as proposal) for inventories
  • Predefined analytics

Market assessment

  • Marketability status: based on compliance assessment
  • Visualized with Compliance Information app
  • Basis for logistic checks

Process integration

  • Integration into product master
  • Marketability check: prevent incompliant sales quotation, order, contract, outbound delivery, and purchase order from being processed
  • Process events from logistics: central inbox for all compliance relevant issues and changes in logistic process
First screenshot showing the Compliance Information - For Products page with the selected Dangerous Goods tab. Second screenshot showing the Dangerous Good - Classification Details page with the selected Classification tab. Third screenshot showing the Delivery note output including dangerous goods information.

Data management

  • Re-use data from marketability and SDS process
  • Task-based: support user to prioritize, work list
  • Apply proper regulations to countries

Basic classification

  • DG classification w/o packaging consideration
  • Automated generation of dangerous goods basic description in required languages

Enclosure-specific classification

  • DG classification of packaged products
  • Visualized with Compliance Information app
  • Predefined analytics
  • Basis for logistic checks and output

Process integration

  • DG check: prevent noncompliant transport in sales quotation, order, contract, outbound delivery, and stock transport
  • DG data output on shipping documents
First screenshot showing the Safety Data Sheets information. Second screenshot showing the selected Item with a warning status regards safety data sheet. Third screenshot showing the Performance Assistant providing detail information regards the safety data sheet status.

Data management

  • Re-use data from product marketability
  • Apply proper SDS requirements to countries

Definition and validation

  • Safety data sheet requirement definition
  • Upload and release SDS document
  • Predefined analytics
  • Basis for logistic integration

Process integration

  • SDS existence check in sales order, sales contract, outbound delivery, and stock transport order
  • Automated SDS shipment triggered by delivery processing
  • Automated subsequent SDS shipment (US and EU rules)
  • Manual shipment
Illustration showing the circle of business processes with examples of integrated product compliance functionalities for product design and engineering, procurement, sales and customer support, and delivery and transportation.

SAP Product Compliance Summary and Resources

SAP Product Compliance Summary

SAP S/4HANA for product compliance provides new functionality for:

  • Product Marketability
  • Safety Data Sheet Management
  • Dangerous Goods
  • Substance Volume Tracking

Embedded Regulatory Content constitutes foundation of product compliance.

Strategic partnership with 3E to strengthen and expand the regulatory content coverage.

Integration in the Value Chain assures compliance in logistic business transactions.

SAP Product Compliance: Resources

Product landing page: https://www.sap.com/products/product-compliance.html

Product Compliance compendium: https://www.sap.com/documents/2020/08/0499e154-a97d-0010-87a3-c30de2ffd8ff.html

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