Customers Case Studies

Background

Momentive Performance Materials is a world leader in providing material solutions through silicon-based products and technology platforms, and fused quartz and ceramics. Headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut, the company is a global leader with worldwide operations, a robust product portfolio, industry-leading research and development capabilities, and a long tradition of service excellence.

With locations and employees scattered around the globe, Momentive Performance Materials supplies silanes, specialty silicones, urethane additives, adhesives, sealants, resins and elastomers that are used in applications that support major global markets. The company's EH&S team is divided into three main groups, which are located in Europe, US and Asia Pacific. These groups are largely responsible for ensuring that Momentive's products are compliant with global regulatory requirements and safe for sale and use in various parts of the world.

The company uses SAP EH&S to manage its hazardous materials and to keep it's EH&S team and their activities connected and integrated. There was, however, one missing piece: content. The team was searching for a way to feed comprehensive, continuously updated global regulatory information directly into and through SAP EH&S.

Challenges

In the past, the EH&S team manually conducted all of its regulatory research. With each group responsible for product safety and regulatory compliance within their region, the team was burdened by this time consuming and difficult task. While working to the best of their ability, the team was constantly wondering if their regulatory data was up to date and if they were duplicating efforts across regions. In addition, the duplication of effort could also result in inconsistent compliance results. With limited manpower and a minimal budget, the team was hoping to find a way to implement a standard interface that linked the groups and allowed them to easily access and share the most recent regulatory data. Under this strategy, a handful of product stewards would be able to maintain and support the complete product portfolio and better facilitate global regulatory compliance.

"We were looking for a tool and data that could help us keep up with regulatory changes and help our team make sure that when a regulation did change, it was quickly updated within SAP EH&S," said Dieter Sydon, Product Safety Steward and Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor, Momentive Performance Materials EMEA & India.

"It was extremely important to make sure that we have the proper content in place," said Bill Lesko, Regulatory Program Leader, Momentive Performance Materials. "Having a thorough notification status for all regulatory changes ensures that we have the best information, and that we are protecting both our liability and our customers."

Solution

The EH&S team researched their options and discovered that 3E's Ariel content, along with the associated software solutions and tools for SAP, together could seamlessly pull comprehensive, up-to-date regulatory data directly into SAP EH&S.

"We chose to work with 3E because we needed a reliable content provider that could provide direct integration to SAP EH&S and download updates and changes to regulations automatically," said Mr. Lesko. "Choosing a trusted, experienced and established outsourced regulatory content provider eased the integration between the content and SAP and allowed us to focus on more strategic functions."

3E's Ariel solutions for SAP easily integrated with SAP EH&S as well as with Momentive's other EH&S applications. 3E has implemented data solutions in more than 50 SAP EH&S installations and the integration process has been extensively refined and simplified for customer benefit.

Using Ariel content for SAP provided Momentive with the relevant information required for making critical decisions related to product safety and dangerous goods, including making sure that material safety data sheets (MSDSs) are compliant within the markets in which the products are sold, and ensuring Momentive's products can be sold in the intended markets.

"We wanted a regulatory content tool that is reliable, simple to use, quick and keeps us in compliance," said Mr. Lesko. "We simply do not have the time to thoroughly research regulatory updates and changes. We required a solution that could be applied and used globally and would require minimal effort and maintenance on our end. We have found that in 3E's Ariel SAP EH&S solutions."

The EH&S team has been particularly impressed with wide-reaching functionality that the Ariel solution brings to SAP EH&S. It is now easy to maintain regulatory information within SAP EH&S at the specification or CAS number level. Both Mr. Lesko and Mr. Sydon were also pleased to note that they were able to tailor the Ariel SAP EH&S solution specifically to Momentive's unique business needs. During installation, each product steward's preferences were noted and stored within the system so that during updates, the steward can easily identify what regulations have changed since the last update.

"The Ariel tool has a unique analysis feature that allows us to review – by substance – which data has changed," said Mr. Sydon. "We do not need to reload complete portfolio if only a few substances have changed. This saves both time and energy."

"We no longer spend extended periods of time researching changes to regulations. We trust 3E's Ariel software and data for SAP to catch the changes and update SAP EH&S automatically," said Mr. Lesko.

Ariel regulatory content encompasses regulated chemicals throughout the world at multiple levels of jurisdiction, from international, U.S. federal and state, to European Union (EU) member and non-member states. Additionally, 3E retains its own internal team of researchers, who are responsible for all of its content and the underlying technology. This stands in stark contrast to other vendors who may buy the bulk of their content from a third party, and then simply repackage and resell it.

Results

As a result of their relationship with 3E, Momentive has realized a significant reduction in time and money spent researching regulatory changes. The EH&S team no longer has to constantly monitor ever-changing regulations as the Ariel team tracks the information for them, enabling Momentive's EH&S team to make informed decisions based on the information provided.

3E's Ariel content for SAP has also increased operational efficiencies. Since the solution has been implemented across all three groups, compliance practices are now consistent throughout the company, with each of the product stewards being able to easily and efficiently maintain and share regulatory information within the SAP EH&S application.

"As a result of using Ariel data in our SAP EH&S system, we feel we are able to better comply with the myriad of regulations affecting our company. Prior to using the solution, we were not confident in our ability to consistently satisfy all of our regulatory obligations," said Mr. Sydon. "We trust 3E's Ariel regulatory content and are confident that we are basing our business decisions on the most comprehensive, accurate regulatory data available."

3E's award-winning Ariel regulatory content includes product safety, EH&S legislation and directives on import/export, hazard communication, workplace safety, notification, reporting and prohibitions on the marketing and use of hazardous substances. 3E's Ariel Global Research Team supports research for more than 700 regulatory lists spanning more than 70 countries.

Momentive has also been very pleased with the ease with which new employees can be trained to use the Ariel software and data. "The system is very intuitive and easy to use," said Mr. Lesko. "And should we have a question, we always receive a prompt response from customer support."

"3E continues to improve its Ariel SAP EH&S solutions by listening to our requests and incorporating our feedback. The quality of the solution is excellent but it is continually improving as 3E expands its reach across the globe," said Mr. Sydon. "We have been using Ariel SAP software and services for close to seven years now and have been extremely pleased with the quality of the content that it generates."

Location:  Global: Europe, US and Asia-Pacific
3E Services: Ariel Content & SAP EH&S Solutions
Industry/Market: Manufacturing - rubber, plastics, adhesives, sealants, silanes and resins
Company Web Site:  http://www.momentive.com