Chemical Inventory Management Solutions Improve Procurement, Safety, Efficiency, and More

Safe, efficient, and compliant chemical inventory management is challenging for organizations across the board.

One area where many especially fall short is in optimal chemical procurement operations—and much of the fault lies with the inability of environmental, health, and safety (EHS) team members to interact with the chemicals procurement specialist.

The buyers make or receive estimates for what they need and conduct their transactions with chemical suppliers via enterprise resource planning (ERP) software or similar platforms. Typically, there is no automated or data-driven link between EHS and the buyers in this process.

This is true for large corporations and small R&D labs, and from healthcare to life sciences and on to major manufacturing. Fortunately, modern approaches and solutions can help managers succeed in the face of all difficulties.

Chemical Inventory Management Questions to Ask Yourself

Do you have chemical inventory management problems caused by substandard procurement? To understand the full scope of the challenges, let’s tick off some qualifying questions. Perhaps you are one of many managers facing common obstacles.

Are you:

• Throwing out too many expired chemicals?
• Routinely facing onsite chemical shortages?
• Hospitalizing employees suffering from chemical exposure?
• Submitting flammable or hazardous material use permits?
• Spending days each year reconciling chemical reporting spreadsheets?
• Forced to track or reduce highly hazardous chemical use?
• Missing your sustainability goals because of complications involved with buying, storing, or disposing of chemicals?
• Facing fire code violations because of too many dangerous chemicals stored onsite or improperly?

If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, it may be time to look at your chemical procurement practices—and think about centralized and innovative solutions and methods to improve them.

Chemical Procurement Processes Siloed

Overall, organizations nationwide are still dealing with the downsides of COVID-19. During the pandemic, there was a kind of panic—the supply chains for chemicals were severely disrupted. Procurement teams bought as much of any available chemical as they could lay their hands on.

Sometimes they bought too much—and paid a premium for substances that ultimately went unused. Often, these expensive chemicals laid around until they expired—and then there was the added expense of shipping them off for proper disposal.

Of course, it was not procurement’s fault: The buyers did their best with the data and requirements they had. We’re in a better place now. But still, an ongoing problem is that the chemicals buyers lack proper information. The buying goes wrong and strands an organization with too few or too many chemicals, including highly volatile ones. This is largely because procurement is siloed from the other key stakeholders that should assist with their purchasing decisions.

For instance, often (even in large companies with deep pockets and resources), there is little communication between procurement specialists and onsite EHS teams. The EHS specialists can’t advise or recommend the most efficient and compliant ordering methods.

The procurement team then buys chemicals for the entire organization (R&D, maintenance, and so on) without factoring in such issues as proper storage, or safety and efficiency. And there is no central and accurate record of the chemicals onsite that EHS team members can access—and use to make decisions based on the latest information.

EHS and Procurement Silos Are Dangerous

The gaps in information sharing and communication between EHS and procurement can lead to a disaster. Too often, EHS is unaware of potential chemical hazards in their facility. This is so dangerous! I can’t count how many times I have walked into client sites and noted the excess hazardous materials. These materials were often stocked wherever there was room—because the hazardous material storage cabinets were already full to the brim.

This mix of chemicals in these sites likely exceeded the local fire code limits. That always exposes the organization to noncompliance and flunked inspections and citations. And worse, there are the actual dangers to the facility and team members. With unused hazardous materials piling up haphazardly, organizations run a greater risk of accidents and exposures.

Once, in a lab overwhelmed with hazardous materials, I saw how a simple elbow bump spilled 20 gallons of hydrochloric acid. This required a lab evacuation and a visit from emergency response professionals. Overall, it was a major headache and gave everyone a fright about safety.

On the other hand, utilizing a chemical inventory management system to share data in near-real time will help make these incidents nonexistent. And it will ensure the right mix of chemicals, procured smartly, and all compliantly stored.

Chemical Procurement Data Drives Safety

Ensuring all chemicals ordered are EHS-approved (or fall within EHS-directed policy) is a best practice for every organization. If EHS and procurement have access to a data-driven chemical inventory management solution, the risks vanish. Even better is when EHS team members assist, when needed, procurement in the actual transactions.

When the key stakeholders all have the same data at their fingertips they will know:

• How much of a chemical is onsite
• Where the substances are stored
• The chemicals that have been used (this assists in future procurement)
• All the relevant associated risk information

As part of that, the ordering of substances new to the organization should trigger an update in an inventory management system. Its arrival should do likewise. In the course of their interactions and conversations, EHS should drive—or at least guide—chemical inventory management. And certainly, for any hazardous chemical, the EHS team members should have final approval capabilities.

In turn, EHS team members should follow legal guidelines and best practices. For instance, they can shape the program based on solid methodologies—such as the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) current good manufacturing practices guide.

Data Driven Procurement = Better Chemicals Management

Over time, EHS and procurement, working together, from a single chemical inventory solution, and relying on established best practices, will see the challenges recede. Among the long-term results are:

• Compliance with National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) lab fire code parameters
• All storage rooms and cabinets will not be in violation of established chemical volume limits
• A streamlined, centralized, and efficient chemical inventory management program
• Savings in time, money, and effort in chemical management programs

Of course, as we have discussed, it’s nearly impossible to enable EHS-procurement collaboration without a single, robust, cloud-based chemical inventory management solution. Unfortunately, I see lots of client sites use paper or Excel spreadsheets for their chemical inventories.

Such systems are manually intensive and error-prone, and make the real-time sharing of accurate procurement and storage data next to impossible. They require extra, unneeded steps to complete transactions according to best practices.

Chemical Inventory Solutions to Boost Collaboration

On the other hand, using a cloud-based chemical inventory software system, accessible from any smart phone, tablet, or other device, enables a world of improvement. A solid platform will allow EHS and procurement managers to automate and streamline many chemical inventory capabilities and functions.

This includes establishing:

• Control areas
• Chemical rankings by volume
• The ability to search for and find safer chemicals than what are used presently
• Sustainability goals
• Room inventories
• Maximum allowable quantities definitions
• Data collection and reporting processes
• Inventory reconciliations
• Granular permitting workflows
• Chemical event response guidance plans
• And more

In fact, EHS and procurement, together, can optimize and configure the software to best suit their own processes—and enable tighter collaboration. Both procurement and EHS team members will require some training on the system—so ideally, an organization will roll out solutions that are as intuitive as possible.

Then, they can define how they want to run chemical inventory—masking the complexity with a streamlined, role-based interface. That means procurement staff members see what they need to buy—and EHS sees operational views that guide that buying.

Partnership for Better Chemical Inventory Management

Chemical inventory management is a complex set of processes and systems. As we’ve discussed, a centralized management platform can enable collaboration between key EHS and procurement teams. This leads to a safer, leaner, more nimble chemicals management operation.

Selecting the proper chemical inventory management solution that meets your lab or facility’s needs is a challenge. Fortunately, there are capable partners to assist you in securing the right package—and then implementing and supporting it. Triumvirate Environmental is such a partner. Need assistance in strategizing about chemical inventory procurement, management, and disposal? We’re the experts—talk to us today.