2021-12-10
ProductIP
3 min. read
How to become a CHAMP
Updates
What if you could reduce the cost for chemical testing and, at the same time, get adequate test results? We launched a new feature that enables you to do just that: CHAMP.
CHAMP, a Chemical Assessment Management Platform, is new ProductIP functionality. It intelligently helps you and your supplier identify chemical risks and save on testing costs.
Managing the chemical chapter of product compliance legislation is often the most challenging part. Most problem owners are not trained chemists. The effects of non-compliance are mostly not directly visible; unless it becomes a sales stop! We aim to get you back into control. CHAMP extends the Bill of Material (BOM) function in the ProductIP technical files. When you build a Bill of Material, you enter details of the parts, the materials used, and the user's exposure to that component. We know what product it is; we know the Member States you will sell it in. Based on that information, the intelligent database is working for you, eliminating what is not a risk and highlighting what you should be testing. The chemical risk assessment of CHAMP in combination with those test results could be the basis of the assumption of compliance with that part of the applicable legislation.
CHAMP works when your supplier, and their suppliers, are well organised. They should feed you with information to build a detailed Bill of Material. Without quality information, the result will be as you have today. In that case, you are wasting money trying to test (random) samples created out of apparent chaos resulting in a poor quality of evidence. That is not what you want.
What does it cost?
The better question is, "What will it bring?" We have seen significant savings that are realised at every shipment. But, of course, the pre-condition is quality information being available. We cannot create magic out of thin air.
Each technical file has a tab called Bill of Material. CHAMP is part of that. So you built a Bill of Material, and when you are ready, you activate CHAMP. The system then performs a detailed chemical assessment against our intelligent database. This document is part of your compliance evidence in the ProductIP technical file.
Additionally, it is a fantastic basis for communication with laboratories when asking them to quote for testing. Some testing will still be required. It is necessary to monitor chemical risks that can occur during manufacturing. The ideal alternative is that the supplier monitors these during mass production as well!
The budget for CHAMP is the same as you would pay for creating a technical file as Pay As You Go or Enterprise user.
FAQ
1. But my suppliers do not have all this information?
You say. That is interesting.
Suppliers can quote and produce a product, can provide detailed information.
Some suppliers are obliged to have a quality system, such as Good Manufacturing Practice for Food Contact Materials, have to be able to provide detailed information.
Suppliers that produce toys have to provide you with this detailed information, as clearly stated in the toys directive.
Even social compliance audits such as Amfori-BSCI have aspects that indicate that information should be there. For example, check Annex 6: Relevant documents for the Amfori BSCI Audits, point 63. "Documentary evidence of consumption. Withdrawal and disposal of chemicals (including Material Safety Data Sheets - MSDS) must be present.
Perhaps it is time to make some tough decisions.
2. We have too many products!
That might be true for most of you who are part of the end of the supply chain; importer, EU based brand-owner, retailer, e-tailer.
ProductIP is web-based for a reason. It facilitates two supply chain collaboration models that can co-exist next to each other perfectly, even for the same supplier. In the first route, you create a technical file at your expense and invite the supplier to upload compliance evidence. Then, you review the information; you organise it and use it to sign off the technical file.
The alternative is that you send a file request to a supplier. Now they have to make a file at their own expense. Now they are confronted with the reality of a comprehensive and monitored requirement list. They have to collect information from their suppliers as well as internally. They have to review it, organise it and sign off on it. These are, after all, manufacturing tasks. The result is a technical file that they can share with you. This sharing is free for both sender and receiver.
You can add your part of the evidence such as inspection results, generate proper EU Declarations of Conformity (CE Declarations) and other documents. We monitor the original and the shared copy to ensure that there cannot be a dispute about timely acting upon regulation changes. Manufacturers are doing what they should be doing, their customers reviewing if they are doing it properly, managing performance—the ideal situation.
Of course, clever OEM manufacturers don't wait for a file request to arrive; they tell their customers that a ProductIP Technical File is available in product quotations.
"Can you not make the Bill of Material - CHAMP - part of the invite process?"
We already have this option. It is called File Request. Push the work to where it should be done based on supply chain role, information and capacity availability.
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