ecratum News

Energy has a double cost: a financial cost and an environmental cost. While the energy production is increasingly coming from sustainable sources such as solar or wind installations, another important aspect of energy management is the optimization and the reduction of energy waste.

Implementing an Energy Management System helps companies to reduce their energy bill and to make a gesture for the planet. One of the most popular standard to achieve this is the ISO 50001 certification.

We will today learn more about Energy Management and how the ISO 50001 can help you achieve your energy policy.

With 14,5 million Jewish people around the world and more than 85% of believers spread over the USA and Israel, Judaism is one of the three major monotheistic religions in the world. Similarly to Islam with the Halal dietary rules, Judaism sets the rules of the “Kashrut” (from the Hebrew  כַּשְׁרוּת, kashruth) in the Torah.

With a market steadily increasing, this matter gets more and more important for purchasing and producing companies in the food industry. Therefore, kosher food should be clearly labelled for an easy identification by the end-consumers. Labels are generally attributed after production facility audit to prove the following of the Kashrut rules during the manufacture of a given product.

Are you a purchasing company which needs Kosher certification from your suppliers or a producing company which would wish to get certified? Here is what you need to know about the Kosher Certification.

In our last blog posts we have discussed about work safety, prevention and necessary documents your company needs to properly handle hazardous material and substances. After presenting the Safety data sheet and the Operating instructions, we will today discuss about another important document for work safety: the Hazardous Substances Register.

What is a Hazardous Substances Register?

 Operation instructions are critical for any company, especially when it comes to work safety. They help preventing accidents and avoiding any health hazard, supporting the old adage “Better safe than sorry”.

What are exactly operation instructions?

Generally, the operation instructions sum up in a short form the different dangers linked to the use of a machine, a working method, a biological or a hazardous. It also provides informations regarding protection measures and recommended behaviors.

The Safety Data Sheet (SDS) is an important document for all companies working with, delivering or purchasing dangerous substances and material. The SDS gives the user informations about the chemicals and the identity of the product, potential dangers, but also communicates instructions for a safe manipulation as well as for prevention and guidance in case of hazardous situation. Dangerous materials are products or substances presenting a hazardous potential such as chemical products (for example: ethanol, acetone, benzin).

As regulated in the Ordinance on Hazardous Substances, dangerous materials need to be identified and documented. The Safety Data Sheet constitutes for the danger analysis an  legal document about the handling of such danger materials and is required for the setup of a register of hazardous substances. Such a register is essential for work protection and serves as central communication medium for works safety on the whole supply chain.

September has now started, the summer break is over and it is time to get back to business. Why not start this new season with some good resolutions such as making your documentation more organized and efficient?

Having its documentation right is critical for any business, especially when it comes to certifications or complaints management. While some will prefer the good old paper system with folders, filing cabinets and the smell of dust when they come in the documentation room. Others will prefer the comfort of an online document management presenting all the benefits of a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) such as being available 24/7 from anywhere in the world (with an internet connection, naturally) but also other benefits specific to document management.

Let’s start with the basics and define exactly what a document management system is before listing the 7 benefits of using a digital document management.

Document management in a SRM context can cover several different areas such as master data collection, documentation, complaints or suppliers evaluation. Considering the collection, information check and storage of every document, this task can be very time consuming when the number of suppliers and products to deal with grows.

To efficiently reduce the time and money spent on document management, you first need to measure the current spendings made in that field. We will help you calculate your current spending before giving you a few tips on how to reduce the time and money spent for your documentation.

A central element of an efficient supplier management is the collection of complete and up-to-date data from your suppliers. Among those important information, you will need the contact partner data, site specific information but also product related data.

Over the past years, we have observed in a large number of companies a dislocation of the core competences within the production and supply chains. The number of parties involved in the production process is increasing both in-house and outside of a company structure. It means that more and more parts and products must be bought to external companies. But to keep a constant quality and price level from suppliers and producers, more and more companies focus on building a strategic and long term supplier collaboration.

 
In our last post about SRM for SMEs, we explained the importance for small and medium enterprises to have an efficient supplier relationship management system.

Several solutions exist for SMEs to manage their suppliers. The most popular options are Installations-program (On-Premises) or web-based and/or cloud-based softwares (Software-as-a-Service or SaaS). With the rise of digitalization, and especially in the Industry sector (Industry 4.0) where digitalization is an important and forward-looking topic, a web-based SRM system can provide the best results for SMEs.