Environment, Health and Safety in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition 2308 (2023)

Identifying potential hazards and assessing associated risks is crucial for maintaining workplace safety. However, this process can be challenging, as hazards may vary across industries and workplaces, and new hazards may emerge with changes in technology or work practices.

See in this blog how we continue our journey to increase key differentiators full of exciting innovations, enhancements, and features supporting your Environment, Health and Safety challenges, and I will walk you through the selected key highlights for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition 2308 release.

To name just a few highlights:

• Single Overview Page with Workplace Safety Insights
• Recording of dangerous goods data (proper shipping names) without automated checks for waste material
• Comprehensive management of the lean risk assessment process
• New application for processing incidents
• Ability to restrict access to incidents
• Ability to declare and report emissions – support for reporting to external entities such as governments
• Ability to upload delivery notes – non-hazardous waste shipment documents
• … and more.

In case you do not need all the information below and just briefly want to get an overview of the release highlights, please watch this video with the top three key innovations:

Release video: SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition 2308 for Environment, Health and Safety:
Top 3 key innovations.

The short video below shows you how Environment, Health, and Safety in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition supports your organization in managing business processes related to the safety of the environment and the health and safety of people.

Video: Key functionalities overview.

Business Background

Having an overview page that displays critical information allows industrial hygienists to quickly assess the severity and urgency of incidents or tasks. This enables them to prioritize and respond promptly, minimizing potential risks and hazards.

This helps for maintaining work safety and enables timely response, and efficient resource allocation, enhances situational awareness, ensures compliance, and promotes effective communication and collaboration.

Key Features

With this new 2308 release, we deliver a new Workplace Safety Overview application that provides Cards with data insights regarding Incident Management. All Cards are based on the My Location concept and use the currently set My Location ID for the logged-in user to pre-filter all data. If no location is set, then by default the Cards will show all data in the organization.

With this new app (App ID: F7512), you can get an overview of active incidents and incident-related tasks at your organization. The overview includes data from your selected location and its sublocations. You can see the most recent items that require attention and navigate to due tasks. Additionally, you can analyze statistical data presented in a variety of chart formats.

Demo 1: Visualize critical information on incidents and work to complete urgent tasks.

You can use this app to do the following:

• Get an overview of active incidents, near misses, and safety observations at your organization or your location and its sublocations.
• See the most recently created or updated incidents of all categories.
• Get an overview of incident-related due and overdue tasks and navigate to them.
• View data presented in a variety of chart formats and aggregated by date, category, and status.
• Navigate to the Set My Location app to specify or change the location you see data for.
• See how many days have passed without any incidents.
• Navigate to other apps that support your incident management processes.

For more information, see Incident Management.

Business Background

By recording and analyzing incidents, observations, and near misses, organizations can identify potential hazards and risks in the workplace. Capturing such incidents provides an opportunity for organizations to learn from past mistakes and improve their safety practices. By analyzing the root causes of incidents and near misses, organizations can identify areas for improvement and implement corrective actions to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

Key Features

With this new 2308 release, you can view and edit incidents in a flexible and responsive interface.

With the Edit Incident (Overview Page Floorplan) app, you can manage incidents and the processes related to them, such as defining tasks, conducting investigations, and reporting to legal authorities.

You can review and complete the information in incident records and track the processing status of incidents.

You can use this app to do, for example, the following:

• Adjust the categorization of an incident.
• Specify the regulations that are relevant to an incident.
• Review and complete the information in an incident record.
• Enter information about people and organizations involved in an incident.
• Enter information about assets involved and damages caused by an incident.
• Enter information about releases into the environment and cleanup responses.
• Enter notices of violation that were issued to your organization.
• Track the financial impact of an incident.
• Carry out an investigation to determine the causes that led to an incident.
• Define tasks that are to be implemented in response to an incident.
• Generate and send reports to comply with legal, regulatory, and internal reporting requirements.
• Close an incident when all related processes have been completed.
• And more …

For more information, see Edit Incident.

Demo 2: Enable an intuitive and more comprehensive way of organizing incident data.

Effects on Configuration

To use the new overview page floorplan (OVP), you need to activate it. In your configuration environment, use the search function to open the following activity: Activate Overview Page Floorplan (New). By default, the user interface is available in its previous version, built using the object instance floorplan (OIF).

With this new 2308 release, you can restrict access to multiple sections of an incident record in a single step. Previously, it was necessary to navigate to each section in order to restrict access to it. Based on these settings, information is only displayed to authorized users.

Previously, it was necessary to navigate to each section in order to restrict access to it. Based on these settings, information is only displayed to authorized users.

The key features are:

• Introduce a new function to handle restricted data. The new dialog control restricts data access across the Incident record. The new feature will allow a complete overview of all restricted pages and objects in the incident record on a single screen.
• Allow expert users to select the access individually for a particular tab in the incident.

Picture 1: Improved user experience in handling sensitive data in the incident.

Business Background

Workplace safety is essential for protecting the health and well-being of employees. By identifying and managing risks, organizations can minimize the likelihood of accidents, injuries, and illnesses, ensuring a safe working environment.

Additionally, many countries have laws and regulations in place that require employers to assess and manage workplace risks. Compliance with these regulations is necessary to avoid legal penalties, fines, and potential lawsuits.

Key Features

With this new 2308 release, we extend the risk identification process to directly manage the risk assessment process in a comprehensive and lean manner. You can now intuitively manage risk analysis including the risk matrix.

Demo 3: Extended risk identification process to directly manage the risk assessment process in a comprehensive and lean manner.

With the Manage Risk Assessments app (App ID: F7348), you can identify, analyze, evaluate, and treat risks to the health or safety of employees working at your company. You can create, approve, and manage risk assessments for your responsible area by identifying any risks and applying the necessary risk controls to treat them.

You can use this app to do the following:

• Display all existing risk assessments in a list report.
• Create and edit risk assessments for one or multiple locations.
• Specify whether a risk assessment is unrestricted or restricted to specific authorizations.
• Identify hazards and their impacts.
• Perform a risk analysis using the risk matrix to evaluate the risk level by severity, likelihood, and, optionally, exposure frequency.
• Implement the required controls to treat risks.
• Approve risk assessments.
• Reassess risks after a certain period of time.

For more information, see Manage Risk Assessments.

Effects on Configuration

• You can use the Configure Risk Assessment Types configuration activity to configure different types of risk assessments. Based on this configuration, the Manage Risk Assessments app displays only properties and actions relevant to the risk assessment type.
• You can use the Configure Hazard and Control Register configuration activity to streamline the process of assessing risks. The register provides an inventory of hazards, their impacts, and controls, which you can adjust so that only relevant ones are displayed for every risk assessment type in the Manage Risk Assessments

For more information, see Configuration for Health and Safety Management.

Business Background

Waste materials can pose significant risks to human health, the environment, and property if not handled properly. Dangerous goods information provides details about the hazards associated with specific waste materials, such as flammability, toxicity, corrosiveness, or reactivity. This information helps transporters and handlers take appropriate precautions to minimize the risks and prevent accidents or incidents.

Key Features

With the Manage Dangerous Goods Information app (App ID: F7337), you can classify waste products according to dangerous goods regulations. When you select a material in the Manage Material Data app, you can create dangerous goods assessments for the products assigned to this material and their related packaged products.

You can use this app to do the following:

• Get an overview of dangerous goods assessments of a product and the related packaged products.
• Classify a waste product and related packaged products according to dangerous goods regulations.
• Specify the transport permission, mode of transport, and packaging information for a packaged product.
• Specify the transport permission (in assessments of products).
• Specify the transport permission, mode of transport, and packaging information (in assessments of packaged products).
• Enter the dangerous goods basic description (in assessments of products).
• Enter a description for documents (in assessments of packaged products).

Picture 2: Maintain dangerous goods data (proper shipping names) without automated checks for applicable dangerous goods regulations.

Note 1: The manual maintenance of the Dangerous Goods data is activated only when Product Compliance is inactive. It allows the user to maintain Unpackaged Product Assessments and Packaged Product Assessments in the Manage Material application independently.

Note 2: The implementation of dangerous goods functionality in SAP Product and REACH Compliance is not required.

Business Background

Waste codes are often required by regulatory agencies to track and manage waste. They help ensure that waste is handled, transported, and disposed of in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. During waste management, the waste codes provide a common language for waste management professionals, allowing them to communicate and understand the characteristics and hazards associated with different types of waste. This information is crucial for determining appropriate handling, storage, treatment, and disposal methods.

Key Features

With this new 2308 release, improvements for working with waste permits have been introduced. When you are creating or editing a permit, the Waste Data section now appears only when the domain Waste has been selected.

Additionally, when a domain is selected, the list of available permit types is now restricted to permit types relevant to the selected domain.

Demo 4: Improved user experience in handling waste permits.

For more information, see My Permits.

Effects on Configuration

For more information on the configuration options, see Configuration for Waste Management.

Business Background

Delivery notes provide a record of the waste being transported, including its quantity, type, and origin. This documentation is crucial for regulatory compliance and helps ensure transparency and accountability in waste management. This means delivery notes enable the tracking of waste from its point of origin to its final destination. This helps authorities and waste management companies monitor the movement of waste and ensure it is handled appropriately.

Key Features

With this new Import Delivery Notes app, you can use a template to import data from nonregulated waste transportation documents (delivery notes) that are provided by a disposer to confirm the transportation and disposal of non-hazardous waste. The system then creates entries for the waste transfer requests and waste transportation documents related to the completed waste shipments.

You can use this app to do the following:

• Import data from waste delivery notes using a downloadable template.
• Get an overview of waste delivery notes and their import status.
• Search for delivery notes by file name and filter by import status.
• Navigate to the waste transportation documents and waste transfer requests that are created during the import.
• View validation messages for files that aren’t imported.
• Export the information displayed in the overview table to a spreadsheet.

Picture 3: Enable straightforward bulk upload of delivery notes for nonhazardous waste shipments.

Business Background

Many countries and regions have regulations and reporting requirements in place to monitor and control emissions. By declaring and reporting emissions, organizations ensure they comply with these regulations and avoid potential penalties or legal consequences.

Accurate emission reporting provides organizations with valuable data to make informed decisions about resource allocation, investment in emission reduction technologies, and setting sustainability goals. It allows them to prioritize actions that will have the most significant impact on reducing emissions.

Key Features

With this new 2308 release, you have now the ability to generate XML output with formatting to send or upload emissions data to external entities, for example, the German government.

With the Manage Environmental Reports app (App ID: F5638), you can prepare and generate emissions declaration report files for the emission of substances that are relevant for regulatory reporting. Based on the emissions declarations report form, you can select the specific criteria that you need (such as plant or type of equipment) and generate the report file.

Demo 5: Enable customers to intuitively generate XML-based emissions reports, for example, for submission to government agencies.

Important Note:

Once the XML has been generated, you can download it and send it to the authorities.

This functionality is still under development. In this release only the user interface items are available. The XML which is generated is empty.

This July, we hosted a series of compelling live sessions from the heart of the SAP S/4HANA Engineering organization. Missed the live sessions? Watch our replays on demand!

Here, you can find a 45-minute recording and a presentation for the sales topics as well as 19 other topics as part of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition 2308 release. For more information on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition Early Release Series, and how to sign up for it, check out this blog post.

Thanks for reading this blog post. Stay tuned!

• Highlights of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition release here

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition release info here
• The Link Collection for Sales here
• The Link Collection for Product Compliance here
• The Link Collection for Environment, Health and Safety here
• Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition release blog posts here and previous release highlights here
• Product videos for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA
• SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition Early Release Series here
• Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
• openSAP microlearning for SAP S/4HANA here
• Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition here
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition community here
• Feature Scope Description here
• What’s New here
• Help Portal Product Page here

Feel free to ask your questions on SAP Community here. Follow the SAP S/4HANA Cloud tag and the PSCC_Enablement tag to stay up to date with the latest blog posts.

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