How many different materials go into a modern, high-end sports car? A few hundred? Maybe a thousand?
Actually, it’s orders of magnitude larger than that—10,000, 20,000 or more.
Let’s say ten percent of those are classified as Dangerous Goods. There’s probably a lot of overlap, but you’re probably talking about several hundred different UN numbers, right?
Now, we all know Dangerous Goods regulations change frequently. When the new edition of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations comes out every January, there could be rules changes that affect some, most, or all of those hundreds of UN numbers. How would you like to be the one who has to enter all those changes manually?
Who has time for that?
That was the challenge faced by a customer of ShipERP, a provider of advanced shipping management functionality to users of the SAP ERP system. To meet that challenge—and many others—ShipERP recently integrated Labelmaster’s DGIS software into their own system, giving ShipERP users seamless access to the industry’s most robust, flexible, and advanced hazmat shipping software.
“It’s easy for our customers to manage”
ShipERP works entirely within the SAP ERP system, and helps businesses seamlessly integrate more than 250 shipping carriers to boost efficiency and reduce freight costs.
“What differentiates us is that our shipping solution is 100% developed in SAP’s language,” says Jeff Gleason, ShipERP Director of Sales and Business Development. “It’s easy for our customers to manage, because they don’t need any outside servers or 3rd party software.”
Many of the company’s customers ship Dangerous Goods. Gleason says several of them manufacture industrial machinery and components—”products with spare parts that need to be expedited”—along with pharmaceutical companies and medical device makers. ShipERP offers a hazmat logistics application for SAP called ShipHAZ, which generates the required labels, forms, and codes these customers need. It’s ideal for customers who want complete ownership of validation.
Yet at least one ShipERP customer wanted full automation.
“It’s all automatic with DGIS”
According to Gleason, a sports car manufacturer “needed to have all their UN numbers updated in real time, instead of having to update them all manually. And it’s all automatic with DGIS.”
Streamlining Dangerous Goods processes is what DGIS is all about. When it’s integrated into a TMS such as ShipERP’s, DGIS lets users access all the Dangerous Goods shipping information they need without changing platforms or even screens. They can coordinate product data and hazmat information instantly throughout their organizations, with resources such as the Lithium Battery Advisor and Dangerous Goods Lists just a mouse click away.
“DGIS validates UN code info automatically in real time,” says Gleason. “That can be very significant depending on the number of codes a company has. And the user doesn’t know ShipERP is making a call out to DGIS—we’ve just extended the screen. It’s seamless.”
“Get it right the first time”
Gleason sees “a lot of value in our partnership with Labelmaster going forward. Dangerous Goods is becoming more and more complicated to manage.”
As an example, he observes that “more and more companies are shipping DG because of lithium batteries. Almost every company has something that needs batteries.”
Shipping hazmat, of course, adds another level of complexity and risk as businesses around the world navigate the most challenging supply chain environment in a generation. Given the challenges and disruptions organizations are wrestling with, maintaining a smooth and efficient supply chain is more important than ever—and it starts with Dangerous Goods compliance.
Asked how he advises his customers who ship hazmat during this stressful time, Gleason says, “Make sure your packaging, your labeling, everything about the shipment is correct, because you can’t afford a delay if your carrier rejects it due to non-compliance.
“It’s never been more important to get it right the first time.”
Make sure your shipments are safe and in complete compliance with a full line of solutions from Labelmaster—a full-service provider of goods and services for hazardous materials and Dangerous Goods professionals, shippers, transport operators and EH&S providers.
