Material compliance is a very complicated matter. There are many different policies and laws that all participants of this industry have to comply to. It is crucial to stay on top of things when it comes to fast passed policies and laws. All parties also have to adapt quickly to policies and laws that have been changed. But there are not only fast passed or changed laws and policies that have to be considered. Besides statutory guidelines, there are also customer requirements that need to be fulfilled.
That means that every service provider of this industry has to check the policies, laws and requirements constantly in order to prevent missing any changes. This requires a lot of time and resources, but if the compliance cannot be guaranteed, even bigger costs will occur.
Therefore, tec4U wanted to present a new communication platform for manufacturers to support the communication process about law specific information between the manufacturer of a product and the suppliers. The platform must allow to request law specific product information from suppliers, and manage the supply chain. With this platform the supplier can answer law specific questionnaires through an easy guided process.
Business Need: Material compliance is a very complicated matter. There are many different policies and laws that all participants of this industry have to comply to. It is crucial to stay on top of things when it comes to fast passed policies and laws. All parties also have to adapt quickly to policies and laws that have been changed. But there are not only fast passed or changed laws and policies that have to be considered. Besides statutory guidelines, there are also customer requirements that need to be fulfilled.
That means that every service provider of this industry has to check the policies, laws and requirements constantly in order to prevent missing any changes. This requires a lot of time and resources, but if the compliance cannot be guaranteed, even bigger costs will occur.
Therefore, tec4U wanted to present a new communication platform for manufacturers to support the communication process about law specific information between the manufacturer of a product and the suppliers. The platform must allow to request law specific product information from suppliers, and manage the supply chain. With this platform the supplier can answer law specific questionnaires through an easy guided process.
Solution: The solution Mansystems built for tec4U has become one part of a product now and is called "DataCross - Communication + Compliance". DataCross – Communication is professionally based on the material compliance communication processes established in the tec4U Solutions GmbH software tool MDS.web and has already proven their mettle in this regard at small and medium-sized structures, as well as in groups of companies.
The DataCross communication system comes with several modules permitting customers to configure the solution that is best for them. Be it merely a “small” solution that only covers two sets of regulations in the communication or a “group solution” with development-supporting MC vetting and up to 15 sets of regulations or individually designed document requests, everything can be mapped by means of DataCross.
Now, it is possible to make sure that all products conform to customer requirements and applicable laws such as REACH, RoHS, conflict mineral requirements, etc. All material requirements can be communicated between OEM and suppliers holistically: from the development via the procurement and production through to the use and processing of your products. The requirements of DIN EN 50581/IEC 63000 can be consistently communicated from the product owner (OEM) to the suppliers of a product by way of a software technology. Furthermore, the suppliers and their products can be vetted in material compliance terms. All substance risks can be requested and qualified and also business-related as well as personal risks can be minimized.
Technically speaking, the DataCross platform is based on a hybrid distributed system. It consists of a central cloud instance as well as of on-premise instances. This allows to exchange relevant material compliance information between suppliers and OEM’s.
The platform is going to use all this information to provide the end-users with a risk and compliance rating for all of their products.
Additional services to support the product and supplier life cycle management will be integrated in the future (see SiCoCheC project).
Results: The project "DataCross- Material Communication" already has been a great success. Mansystems and tec4U have built a product functionality that will hit the market in full force.
DataCross – Material Compliance Communication enables a high level of user acceptance within the supplier chain – guaranteed by the intuitive operating concept – and the system-supported, sensitive supplier relationship management with filed escalation system ensure successful supplier communication. It supports several kinds of communication processes even when the participating suppliers communicate only outside of the system.
Integrated vetting routines unburden the system operators. The special tec4U service of filing and updating requirements (regulations, standards and guidelines) in DataCross, and of hence assuming the liability, makes the requirements management unique in compliance auditing.
A sophisticated KPI system/cockpit provides information on the communication process with simple comprised information like a traffic light system and details information about the escalation hierarchy This enables product communication risks to be determined and evaluated and activities to be initiated and/or monitored at the touch of a button.
DataCross – Material compliance Communication places the highest demands on system functionality and data security.
Further on no communication results are stored in the data transfer server if the supplier doesn’t want it. DataCross is possible as an in-house system. It reduces data entry effort – no data publication, data forwarding, supplier chain mapping anymore. System interfaces/data exchange formats to other MD communication systems are also possible.
Furthermore, the material compliance software DataCross is the first to enable the material-related requirements arising from regulations like REACH, RoHS etc. to be holistically communicated with the suppliers and evaluated within a company. These requirements of relevance for product liability can thus be implemented from the development stage via the procurement and production through to the use and processing, putting companies in a position where they can guarantee the conformity of their products with applicable laws and customer requirements while minimizing their own business-related and personal risks.
DataCross is still ongoing development, currently providing the users with the means to maintain their detailed product information, exchange basic compliance information with their suppliers and generate the respective risk and compliance ratings.