Using Product Compliance in Purchasing Processes

Watch the following video to learn how the product compliance solution assists in managing the compliance of dangerous goods during stock transports:

Product Compliance is a way to manage compliance for your products by assessing their marketability in different countries and regions, classifying products according to dangerous goods regulations, and shipping required safety data sheets.

If a product has been classified as a dangerous good, the system also checks if all necessary dangerous goods data is available, and whether transportation of the product is allowed.

Depending on the outcome of this check, the system sets the corresponding status for the item. Based on the item status, the system also sets a status in the header of the stock transfer order.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud for product compliance helps enforce compliance at each step of the product lifecycle. With the integration of compliance information in purchasing processes such as stock transfers, companies can ensure that safety information is available and compliant transports leave the company premises.

The following are the capabilities:

• Automatic check of all compliance-relevant products for available safety data sheets and allowed dangerous goods transports
• Checks executed at the creation of intracompany stock transport orders
• Automatic block of stock transport orders with items with missing safety data sheets, missing dangerous goods classifications, or forbidden transports on all modes of transport
• Automatic removal of blocks once safety data sheets and dangerous goods classifications are available and transports are allowed

• Dangerous Goods Check in Purchasing Processes: If a product has been marked as relevant for compliance in the product master, the system checks dangerous goods data as a purchasing document is created or edited. If an item in the document has been classified as a dangerous good, the system checks if released dangerous goods assessments are available, and whether transportation of the product is allowed, forbidden, or restricted. Depending on the outcome of this check, the system issues warnings, and blocks items, or entire business documents.
• Safety Data Sheet Check in Purchasing Processes: If a product has been marked as relevant for compliance in the product master, the system verifies whether a safety data sheet is required and whether the relevant safety data sheet is available in the specified languages as a purchasing document is created or edited. Depending on the outcome of this check, the system issues warnings, and blocks items, or entire documents.
• Supplier Check in Purchasing Documents: In Product Compliance, you can assess suppliers and set a status to indicate if a supplier is approved or blocked. This information is used in a check that considers the status of the supplier assessment of compliance-relevant products during the creation of a purchasing business document. Fields on item level and on header level indicate the status of the check.
• Product Marketability Assessment: Marketability assessments are compliance assessments that are specific to product marketability. The goal of marketability assessments is to check if a product can be produced or sold in certain countries/regions. A marketability assessment is created automatically when a compliance requirement for marketability, also known as a marketability requirement, is assigned to a product or raw material via a compliance purpose.

The following status fields for the results of the product compliance checks are available on the purchase order header level and on the purchase order item level:

• Product Compliance Supplier Check Status
• Product Marketability Status
• Dangerous Goods Status
• Safety Data Sheet Status

These status fields are available in the following apps:

• Manage Purchase Orders
• Create Purchase Order - Advanced

The product compliance status fields are available in the API service:

API_PURCHASEORDER_PROCESS_SRV on the purchase order header node and on the purchase order item node.

The Product Compliance Supplier Check Status field for the result of the product compliance check is available in the product compliance section at the header and item level of the purchase contract in the Manage Purchase Contracts app.

If the status of the item is set to Blocked – By Supplier, the purchaser gets a message to block the item manually to prevent it from further processing in a purchase order. For an item in status Blocked – Decision Pending, a compliance request for the product stewardship specialist is created to check the assessment of the supplier. If the compliance result of the assessment is positive, the document is unblocked.

One of the prerequisites for the product compliance checks is the product/material has been marked as relevant for compliance in the product master.

You can categorize a product as compliance-relevant using the Manage Product Master Data app. The user can assess the compliance aspects so that the products can be sold, transported, produced, stored and purchased without causing any compliance risks by the company. To categorize a product/material using Create Material app is not possible.

You can use the Compliance Information - For Products app to view compliance information for products for which there is a compliance view. When you select a product, you can choose to view information about its product marketability status, the availability of safety data sheets, and dangerous goods data for different countries and regions as a world map or in a table view.