Enterprise Resource Planning Blogs by SAP
Get insights and updates about cloud ERP and RISE with SAP, SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and more enterprise management capabilities with SAP blog posts.
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Chr_Vogler
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
5,917
Companies producing or shipping hazardous materials must accurately package and safely transport these and comply with numerous dangerous goods regulations worldwide. SAP S/4HANA for product compliance helps by automating the classification of hazardous materials, embedding dangerous goods checks in logistics processes, and providing all required documents.

With this solution, you can centrally create and manage all dangerous goods information. Embedded dangerous goods content, such as regulatory information for all United Nations numbers, helps reduce the data collection effort and automates dangerous goods classification.

You can create and automatically provide all required dangerous goods documents and populate logistics documents with dangerous goods information. Checks integrated in logistics processes, such as outbound delivery, handling unit management, and transportation management, provide adequate packaging and accurate transportation modes and routing.

In this blog series, I will give you an engineering expert view of some selected highlights for product compliance of our SAP S/4HANA 2021 for Product Compliance.

The blog is built as a series of 3 parts and present the key highlights for:

In my second blog, you can find information on functions that are used to ensure that all shipments comply with dangerous goods regulations. To name just a few highlights that we have in store in the new release:

  • Management of Technical Names for Dangerous Goods

  • Enhancements in Classifying Packaged Dangerous Goods

  • Integration of Dangerous Goods Checks in Purchase Order with Transport Responsibility

  • Integration of Dangerous Goods Checks into Transportation Management

  • Provision of Dangerous Goods Data for Decentralized Systems

  • … and more.


Remark

  • All these innovations will also be available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.

  • You will find in this blog demos related to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, but the functionalities described in these demos also correspond to SAP S/4HANA 2021.


Classification for Content-Based Regulations


As part of the SAP content for Dangerous Goods Management, the following new content-based compliance requirements are delivered. These compliance requirements contain the information provided by these dangerous goods regulations to simplify your classification process for unpackaged products.

  • RID: Compliance requirement with data from the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) Appendix C – Regulation concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID).

  • ADN: Compliance requirement with data from the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways (ADN) regulation.

  • ADG: Compliance requirement with data from the Australian Code for the Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road and Rail.

  • NZS: Compliance requirement with data from the NZS New Zealand DG.

  • SANS: Compliance requirement with data from the South African National Standard of Dangerous Goods.


https://sapvideoa35699dc5.hana.ondemand.com/?entry_id=1_3ty8xcsz

Demo 1: With the update and enhancement of the integrated regulatory content, you stay compliant with your product portfolio using the most recent regulatory updates (including audio).

These compliance requirements contain detailed classification data for a UN number, such as the packing group, proper shipping name, special provisions, and labeling information.

When classifying an unpackaged product using these content-based compliance requirements, you select only the applicable data set for the UN number. The other provided classification data is filled automatically into the corresponding fields in the apps for classifying unpackaged products according to one of these dangerous goods regulations.

Related Information


You can find more information in the Product Assistance for Product Compliance. See:

Dangerous Goods Assessment

Compliance Requirements in Dangerous Goods Management

 

Enhancements in Classifying Packaged Dangerous Goods


With this release, new fields and functions have been added to the Classify Packaged Dangerous Good app and to the Classify Dangerous Good - Packaged Product apps.

Manage Technical Names for Substances


With this app, you can enter and manage technical names for components of products classified as dangerous goods, as required by regulation. You can view whether a substance consists of dangerous components. For each dangerous component, you can view or change existing technical names or provide new technical names if necessary. For example, as a dangerous goods expert, you might need to enter a commonly accepted technical name for a component to replace a company-specific name. Permissions to manage technical names are restricted to dangerous goods experts.

Key Features

You can use this app to:

  • If the UN number of the substance has NOS in its description, maintain up to three technical names in English for the dangerous components of that substance, as required by regulation. Use a commonly accepted name as the technical name for the component.

  • Enter the technical name in additional languages, if necessary.

  • For each dangerous component, view or change its current technical name, if any.



Figure 1: Management of technical names for substances

New labeling section for labels and markings for packages


Labeling, marking, and placarding are important steps in preparing a dangerous good for transportation. Labels, markings, and placards visualize hazards associated with the dangerous good and communicate information about safe handling. With this feature, you can add labeling, marking, and placarding information in the Classify Dangerous Good - Packaged Product app. You can select additional hazard labels as well as additional handling labels and markings for packages and for containers, tanks, and vehicles.

To support you in your dangerous goods classification process, you can use the new Determine Labels feature. With this feature, the system determines applicable labels using specific, predefined rules and automatically fills the labeling section with the determined labels. You can adapt the determined labels if needed.

The Classify Dangerous Good - Packaged Product app uses graphics that are delivered as SAP content and are managed in the Manage Regulatory Graphics app.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Hb4ECqDqM

Demo 2: Delivery of regulatory graphics such as handling and marking labels for dangerous goods.

Label Determination for Dangerous Goods

You can manually enter labels and markings that have to be applied to packages or to containers, tanks, and vehicles for each regulation in Classify Dangerous Good – Packaged Product apps. To support you in your dangerous goods classification process, you can select multiple regulations in the Classify Packaged Dangerous Goods app and use the Determine Labels function on the selected regulations. With this function, the system uses specific predefined rules to calculate the applicable labels, and automatically fills the labeling section of all selected regulations with the determined labels.

The determination of the applicable labels consists of different rules for determining applicable labels. The rules consider the enclosure variant, special provisions, regulations for specific UN numbers, as well as physical-chemical properties such as the state of matter of the dangerous goods. The system processes the rules in a specific sequence. It stops when finding a match and fills the labels in the corresponding fields.

You can adapt the determined labels if needed. However, if you start the determination of the labels again, the system overwrites your changes

 

Control and emergency temperatures


With this release, you can

  • define the control and emergency temperature

  • and include them in the dangerous goods descriptions for relevant packaged products.


Background:

Certain self-reactive substances may only be transported under controlled conditions and therefore, we have two different temperatures:

  • control temperature, and is the maximum temperature, at which the self-reactive substance can be safely transported.

  • emergency temperature, and is the temperature, at which emergency procedures will be implemented.



Figure 2: Inclusion of control and emergency temperature in dangerous goods description for relevant products

 

Description templates


When you transport a product that is classified as dangerous goods, specific information has to be printed on documents. What data has to be printed and even the formatting of the printed data is specified in dangerous goods regulations. To support you in classifying packaged dangerous goods, Dangerous Goods Management provides predefined description templates consisting of placeholders and rules to generate the description of the dangerous good and to determine the right description for the right document.

The description templates are part of the content delivered by SAP. They are included in the compliance requirements that represent the dangerous goods regulation. You can view the delivered description templates using the Manage Compliance Requirements - Dangerous Goods app. On the Output Details tab of a compliance requirement, you can view the different description templates and the placeholders delivered for the different segments of the description templates. In addition, you can view the selection rules for determining the right template to generate the correct description. With the rules, the system determines descriptions that, for example, depend on specific enclosure variants, special provisions, and special UN numbers.

The system uses the delivered description templates and selection rules to generate the description for documents in the Classify Packaged Dangerous Goods app. The system resolves the placeholders in the languages that are specified as required for documents. You can view the required languages in the compliance requirement that represents the dangerous goods regulation on the Dangerous Goods-Specific Details tab in the Manage Compliance Requirements - Dangerous Goods app. When printing the description on documents, the placeholders are resolved in the language in which the document is printed, provided that this language is also a required language for documents.


Picture 3: description templates are part of the content delivered by SAP

With the SAP S/4HANA 2021 release, the description templates have been split into three different segments to be more flexible for printing dangerous goods data.

The description templates have been adapted to include the following placeholders for the new fields so that this information can be printed on documents.

  • Hazard Notes: <<HAZARD_NOTES>>

  • Control Temperature: <<CONTROL_TEMPERATURE_TEXT_VALUE>>

  • Emergency Temperature: <<EMERGENCY_TEMPERATURE_TEXT_VALUE>>

  • Supplement Information: <<DG_DESCRIPTION_SUPPLEMENT>>


Related Information

You can find more information in the Product Assistance for Product Compliance. See:

 

Enhanced Dangerous Goods Check in Outbound Delivery


When an outbound delivery is created by Transportation Management, the dangerous goods check in the outbound delivery is not only based on the departure and destination country or region but also considers the planned freight orders that contain mode of transport information. This means that the check does not check all potentially relevant dangerous goods regulations. Instead, it checks only the affected dangerous goods regulations and modes of transport on the planned route.


Picture 4: More-precise dangerous goods checks for improved compliance with dangerous goods regulations

In the Specify Excluded Document Types for Integration activity, the configuration expert has to specify the documents that are not to be considered for checking. For the entered document types, no compliance check is carried out. All other document types are checked and, if issues arise, the system blocks the documents.

The standard system is delivered without any settings. That means that all documents containing compliance-relevant products are checked and, if issues arise, blocked. You can change the settings in Customizing under:

à Product Compliance à Integration à Specify Excluded Document Types for Integration.

 

Integration of Dangerous Goods Checks in Purchase Order with Transport Responsibility


With the 2021 release, a dangerous goods check is now integrated into the processing of the purchase order with transport responsibility.

In Product Compliance, you can assess suppliers and set the 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 the purchase order documents:

If a product has been marked as relevant for compliance in the product master, the system checks the supplier assessment as the purchasing document is created or edited.

Depending on the outcome of this check, the system issues warnings, blocks items, or entire documents.


Picture 5: Checking of all compliance-relevant products to determine whether procurement is allowed from a supplier point of view.

Prerequisites


To use the integration functions, the following scope item must be active: 5OJ (Supplier Compliance in the Value Chain).

The behavior of Supplier Check


Depending on the type of documents being checked, the system issues warnings, blocks items or entire documents. The potential check results are the following:

  • If the supplier of all items is approved, the document can be processed.

  • If the supplier for an item is not approved, the item and, subsequently, the document is blocked.

  • For a blocked item, 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.


 

Integration of Dangerous Goods Checks into Transportation Management


With this 2021 release, dangerous goods checks are now integrated into transportation documents for road transport.

 

Additional Details


Compliance with dangerous goods regulations is an important component of product compliance to ensure the safe transportation of dangerous goods. To support your compliance with dangerous goods regulations, dangerous goods checks are now integrated into the processing of the following transportation documents for road transport:

  • Freight Unit

  • Freight Order


If a product has been marked as relevant for compliance in the product master, the system checks dangerous goods data as the transportation document is created or edited. If an item in the document 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, forbidden, or restricted. Depending on the outcome of this check, the system issues warnings or blocks the document.

 

Thanks for reading this blog post. Stay tuned!

If you are also interested in other Line of Business, I would like to draw your attention to my link collection blog – The Link Collection

If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Customer Community. This platform which is available to SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers and partners has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions.

For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA 2021, check out the following links: 

  • SAP S/4HANA release info: sap.com/s4hana

  • SAP S/4HANA Community here

  • The Link Collection for Product Compliance here

  • SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here

  • Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here

  • Join the SAP S/4HANA Movement

  • Best practices for SAP S/4HANA here

  • Help Portal Product Page here

  • Feature Scope Description here

  • What’s New here


Follow us via @Sisn and #S4HANA, or myself via @VoglerChrist and LinkedIn
4 Comments