Who is Still Struggling with (M)SDS?

When shipping chemicals, people throughout the supply chain will work with Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). In short, these documents carry information about the nature of the chemicals, potential threats when handling them, and ways to manage those threats. The problem that we encounter throughout the supply chain, not in the least among 3PL, is that these documents are "non-standardized." This basically means that inconsistent formatting makes it harder to extract key information, potentially leading to mistakes in handling the chemicals.

In practice: physical or electronic MSDS documents are handed down at each step in the supply chain. A person interprets the document and assigns the cargo to a certain location (dock) where the necessary equipment allows for compliant handling.

Current & future developments

The UN (United Nations) developed the GHS (Globally Harmonized System) for the classification and labeling of chemicals across borders. This has pushed the replacement of MSDS by SDS (Safety Data Sheets). The main difference is that the latter is standardized and more exhaustive as to which hazards are associated with the chemicals. In the U.S., the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) mandates the use of SDS. In the E.U., it is part of the (binding) REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and restriction of CHemicals) regulation.

Where (AI) technology comes in

Classic ERP, WMS or TMS systems don't usually cover safety regulations. As a result, companies are left with a single option: do it manually. This is costly and error-prone. One solution would be to use document intelligence (a feature found in most modern cloud platforms, e.g. Azure Document Intelligence) to extract the data and push it to the ERP. This is relatively easy and requires minimal data engineering efforts. In the meantime, 3rd party software providers have equally identified this market need and have developed a dedicated solution (e.g.: TotalSDS).

Still doing manual work? It is highly likely that better solutions exist! Reach out to us, over the years we acquired deep knowledge of the industry's tech stack (especially in the 3PL space). And remember: we are data & AI solution BUILDERS (and don't charge for initial advice).