I have recently started a cool project – it involves my going to SAP customers and interviewing them about the sustainability solutions they have implemented. The first SAP customer I visited was AkzoNobel in Sweden.
There I chatted with Lisbeth Svensson about their rollout of the SAP product safety solution.
Here’s a transcription of our conversation:
Tom Raftery: Hi everyone, welcome to the GreenMonk Sustainability Customer Reference Series, sponsored by SAP. With me I have Lisbeth Svensson from AkzoNobel. Lisbeth can you tell me a little bit about your role in AkzoNobel and also a little bit about AkzoNobel itself?
Lisbeth Svensson: Yes, I am a Development Manager in the area of regulatory affairs and in my role I have been managing implementation projects and development projects in the area of product safety.
Safety is, of course, very important for us to give the correct handling information, risk reduction measures and such.
Tom Raftery: Okay and AkzoNobel?Lisbeth Svensson: And AkzoNobel is the largest global paints and coatings manufacturer and also a major player in the area of specialty chemicals.
Tom Raftery: With your job function being around regulation and your company being involved in producing chemicals, I imagine there are a lot of issues that you have to deal with.
Lisbeth Svensson: Yes, chemicals need to be regulated in different regulations all over the world and we have to comply with that and its differences from one country to the other. And to do that of course we need to have some — some IT solutions for — to support the product safety area. So I have been involved in implementing solutions for — to support REACH and GHS, which is Globally Harmonized System, and classification and labeling requirements.
Tom Raftery: And you recently rolled out the SAP product, safety solutions, how does that help you meet these challenges?
Lisbeth Svensson: It’s helping us in a way that we can manage input data from one location and still manage to get the compliant safety data sheets and labels in different countries all over the world.
And that helps us also if we want to put a new product on the market, that we already have a system in place to manage the safety data sheets and labels for that country.
Tom Raftery: Okay and finally Lisbeth what are your plans for the SAP product safety solution going forward?
Lisbeth Svensson: In the next few years, we will finalize all the implementation in the business units in specialty chemicals and when we have done that, all our safety data sheets and label will have the same look and feel across all the countries, all the business units and that will give us a perception of one AkzoNobel.Tom Raftery: Lisbeth that’s been great, thanks a million for talking to us today.