Magis
Hazardous substances – organic and inorganic chemicals, basic chemical
substances, chemical products and plastics – are used in many manufacturing
companies. Handling and transporting them involve considerable risks. There are therefore
complex statutory safety regulations governing their use, storage and transportation. The
information required to describe these hazardous substances is still contained in diverse
paper-based documents. However, the advent of XML means they can be integrated and made
available electronically for the first time. This will lead to a considerable reduction in
the risks associated with these substances.
Hazardous substances are described on statutory safety data sheets, and
the applicable regulations and standards for them are constantly being tightened. Safety
data sheets are therefore an important part of the product documentation. They serve as a
basis for safety regulations for production and transportation. Shipping companies require
them as accompanying documents for consignments. If freight is being shipped by road from
Portugal to Poland, for example, these documents are required in Portuguese, Spanish,
French, German and Polish.
In accidents involving hazardous
substances, it is vital to have the correct information available rapidly in order to
prevent or contain injury and damage to goods and the environment. Hazardous substances
are involved in many processes, and it is essential to track them on their way through the
company and integrate information going far beyond what is contained in the safety data
sheets.
Shipping companies can hardly be expected to have all these documents
constantly available in several languages, so they turn to specialists like Magis in Bad
Camberg, a company offering environmental services. A special Web-based service allows
shipping companies to obtain the necessary accompanying documents from Magis – in a
total of 29 languages. These are available in the form of around 5,500 text modules and
correspond to the recommendations of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie
(BDI), an
umbrella organization of German industrial companies, and the Verband der Chemischen
Industrie (VCI), an association for the German chemical industry.
Safety data sheets are also required when one company supplies another
within the chemical industry. A company producing basic chemicals, for example, must
provide them when it sells its products to a paint manufacturer. The latter obtains
products from a number of suppliers, and these also have to provide paper-based safety
data sheets, which are often eight to ten pages long. Large volumes of long documents can
thus accumulate. At best these can be filed away and stored, but in the worst case
scenario they have to be re-entered into a computer system so that they can be reused
electronically.
"Until now there has been no way of electronically exchanging the
different items of information contained in the safety data sheets between companies in
the chemical industry," confirms Klaus-Dieter Mehler, chief executive of Magis.
"Doing this using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is too complex and, above all,
too expensive for small and medium-sized companies."
Over three-quarters of all German chemical companies have fewer than 300
employees and are thus categorized as small and medium-sized companies. These companies
generally have business relationships with a number of large groups in the industry, which
each define their own standards for EDI. The small and medium-sized companies would
therefore have to be operating several different EDI methods for the electronic transfer
of documents on hazardous goods. The effort and costs involved in this would be totally
disproportionate to any possible benefit, which is why these documents are still shipped
on paper.
The situation is totally different with XML-based solutions, however,
which in Mehler’s opinion do have a realistic chance of being implemented: "XML
can finally fulfill the promise of EDI as a universal data interchange format. Whereas EDI
is a technology of the 80s, the future belongs to XML. Not only is XML a suitable medium
for conveying all kinds of information, which is exactly what is required for safety data
sheets, for example, but it is also a data storage format. Moreover, leading companies in
the software industry from IBM and Microsoft through to SAP and Software AG support the
XML standard defined by the W3C."
Magis has therefore developed a pilot application based on Software
AG’s Tamino XML information server to demonstrate how the transfer of business and
commercial data on the Web can work. In this scenario, a chemical company has a Tamino
server on which safety data sheets are stored as XML documents. The company sends these
via the Web to its customers in the chemical industry. These companies can view the
documents with a browser and, if necessary, edit them with an XML-capable editor. All the
major vendors of ERP software will soon be equipping their products with an XML interface,
so direct import into these applications is conceivable. Ideally, the recipient of the XML
data also has an XML server like Tamino and can thus make the documents available for
other purposes.
Even in the simplest case, however, companies can view the documents
received using a conventional XML-capable browser. Compared to EDI solutions, which are
generally proprietary, this alone brings huge savings. According to Mehler, the concept
has been extremely well received by the VCI, the German chemical industry association:
"Following a presentation we gave on the concept, the VCI expressed great interest in
an XML-based solution." Whereas in the EDI world a supplier may have to develop a
separate interface for each customer, if XML is used the company needs only the relevant
specification of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). "Particularly for small and
medium-sized companies this represents an enormous advantage," emphasizes Mehler.
However, the scope for XML to be used as a standard for the interchange
of structured and unstructured data goes far beyond the chemical industry alone. Many
companies in the industry sell products such as paints or plastics to companies in the
automotive industry, for example. Here, too, the goods must be accompanied by safety data
sheets. Mehler explains: "As is well known, for some time now the automotive industry
has been making efforts to provide suppliers with business and commercial data for
electronic data interchange. The same principle applies here: For a company that supplies
a number of different manufacturers it makes eminent business sense to be able to send
documents in a standard format rather than to have to deal with different EDI interfaces.
XML is the ideal solution for this."
Mehler is optimistic: "If the chemical industry succeeds in
establishing XML as the standard for data interchange in practice, there is a good chance
that the automotive industry can also be persuaded of the benefits. EDI has had its time.
XML is ideally suited for the document-based exchange of information. At the risk of
exaggerating slightly: it won’t be long before everyone knows that those who
don’t use XML will not be doing business at all."
Contact:
Magis Gesellschaft für Umwelt Informationssysteme mbH
Klaus-Dieter Mehler, Geschäftsführer
Otto-Hahn-Straße 20
D-65520 Bad Camberg
Tel.: +49 6434/900183
Fax: +49 6434/900185
E-mail: Magis@t-online.de
* Jürgen Wasem-Gutensohn a writer with the PR agency
PR-COM in Martinsried near Munich |
