SAP's latest cloud offerings focus on churning out sustainable products
While SAP (and a lot of other software giants) have been busy focusing on how to better work social into the business world, the management solutions provider is busy promoting its greener strategies too.
The Germany-based corporation has introduced two new cloud-based solutions intended to help manufacturing customers turn out products are safe and compliant.
SAP assured that this can be done by working more in the cloud. That argument is typically applied to making better business decisions in general these days, usually in reference to saving time and costs for various departments. So why not for sustainable production as well?
For example, SAP cited that manufacturers need to know exactly what chemical substances are in the materials, components and products that they buy from suppliers. But it can be difficult and time-consuming to verify this information across an extended (and sometimes global) supply chain involving hundreds of partners.
Thus, SAP argued that with its new methods, manufacturers and suppliers will be able to collaborate to collect, analyze and disseminate product information in a quicker fashion.
Here's a rundown on the new solutions:
- SAP Product Stewardship Network: Designed to connect manufacturers with suppliers in order to collect detailed information about the substances that in their products. Information is uploaded to the cloud only once and is then populated across the network. The network is open to both SAP and non-SAP customers, and this network is targeted toward "discrete manufacturers" (i.e. producers of electronic or medical equipment).
- SAP EHS Regulatory Documentation OnDemand: Aimed at process industries (i.e. chemical or pharmaceutical manufacturers), this is a content service for managing and creating regulatory documentation. SAP will generate safety data sheets and labels in the cloud that declare regulated substances and tell people how to handle them safely.
Although both solutions are based in the cloud, they use information from customers' on-premise solutions.