21. May 2025: 12th Conference
Over 50 participants had an exciting and educating day at the 11th Conference on 15. May 2024 with new aspects how eSDScom integrates into the Digital Product Passport (DPP) and Digital Labelling approaches, and how Artificial Intelligence can help creating and using eSDScom XML data. The workgroups are now discussing these learnings and will report at 2025's Conference.
Previous Conferences
Future regulatory requirements will bring changes to supply chain communication in industry (Safety Data Sheets, Digital Product Passport). New Technologies are changing the way we work and seems to be an attractive answer to manifold challenges in the supply communication. Can recent technology developments radically change and improve to supply chain communication? Will AI take over and outrule established standards like XML?
This year's eSDSCom conference will seek to understand where the eSDSCom project will fit in the mix of all the topics mentioned above. A host of presentations will bring us through the regulatory and technological landscape. A panel will explore the value in maintaining XML files as one of the options for data transfer, despite developments like AI, considering accuracy and standardisation needs for regulatory requirements.
Conference programme / Presentations (ZIP, 19 MB)
With ECHA having supported the shift to XML-based safety data sheet transmission back in 2019, every actor in the chemical supply chain is still waiting for further decisions before larger investments take place. Requirements and technologies are well known, but solutions are shaped by large-scale systems of high complexity. Participate in this workshop to learn how eSDScom prepares, including aspects of implementation costs as well as interoperability with other data exchange scenarios and legacy document-based solutions.
The successful implementation of data exchange not only requires a good interface specification, but tools for tasks such as editing, printing, and data quality checks. While integrated software systems may have their own solution, standard tools lower the implementation burden, reduce systems administration, and enable users to deliver and evaluate with less infrastructure or budget.
This conference not only provides an update on the latest specification developments, but also on existing tools and their development state. For the transitional phase while PDF is still the most common safety data sheet format, this is the perfect opportunity to compare five solutions in a live demonstration with the same test files!
When quantity of compliance data grows, a good assessment quality requires efficient data processing. During ECHA's REACH Review Action 3, a broad support for XML-based data exchange in the chemical supply chain was concluded. However, it remains industry's task to define this exchange. The latest SDScom version is now covering U.S. safety data sheets and is heading towards full supply chain coverage, with a defined workflow to take data from Exposure Scenarios into Safety Data Sheets and to the end user. The combination of SDScom and ESCom might be the next logical step considering the needs of the whole chemical supply-chain in the worldwide SDS processing workflow.
This Web Conference provides an introduction into the latest changes of SDScom, including insight into first applications based on version 5.0 – and it addresses how to process PDF documents into XML.
The 7th workshop in 2020 was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Efficiency and data quality are the cornerstones in supply chain communications, and SDScom evolves when requirements change. The upcoming BDI workshop discusses real-life cases of data transfer not (yet) covered: Notifications according to CLP article 45 impose additional data requirements, no matter if the notification will be covered by SDScom. And if two IT systems exchange information for more than one country, a product-centered approach can reduce redundancy and consistency checks. Proceedings from the automotive and trading sector round up a day that will outline the roadmap of data exchange in European chemical regulations.
The past years have shown several initiatives to improve data exchange through standardisation, all of which are meanwhile used as the blueprint for data structures or data exchange. This web conference, held only six months after the last BDI workshop, marks the start of a new phase in which the goal are efficiency gains via better coordination of SDScom, ESCom and EuPhraC. It will outline new challenges, and the status of project coordination. Follow-up workshops will be held face-to-face, annually in every spring, while more technical workshops take place every fall.
In the spirit of open source / open data projects, all participants will have the chance to contribute ideas to the future agenda and thus will collectively set priorities for implementation.
Communication of Safety Data Sheets made a leap forward in 2015: The SDScom group formed a steering committee, a technical working group and processes that allow an effective management of enhancements, bug fixes and user support via GitHub. This was first utilized in the SDBtransfer project which was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Also, first industry applications are live and running meanwhile. Now is the time to take strategic decisions for version 4.3 of SDScom, to be published in spring 2017.
This workshop presents the status of current SDScom applications, discusses and decides issues that cannot be resolved online, and gives an outlook to possible scope enhancements like SUMI support and CLP article 45 data. It aims at project leaders, product managers and strategic decision takers with a good technical background.
Structured exchange of Safety Data Sheet data is the basis of paperless future communication along the supply chain. Open standards for XML schemas and phrase content are now ready, and the resulting non-proprietary data exchange is essential for user acceptance. Implementation activities have started across Europe and deliver
customer feedback.
This conference shares information on these early projects, and aims to enable experts among software companies and users of hazardous products to assess the applicability and implementation steps for their IT environment: How mature are standards now? How are phrases and XML applied together? When is the best time
to implement?
In this context the process of mapping as a starting point in every implementation project will be focused as well as the discussion of implementing an appropriate future organisation structure for maintaining and further developing the open standard SDScomXML. The conclusion will be fed back into the standardisation working groups in order to strengthen the open industry standards.
Due to the increase in worldwide Safety Data Sheet (SDS) requirements linked to the obligation to ensure up-
and downstream communication and company internal hazardous material management, it is expected tha t
there will be escalating cost and effort along the complete supply chain. Different European institutions have
therefore already developed or are in progress to develop IT solutions with an integrated XML interface.
The main objective of this workshop is to show which data are required from which member of the supply-chain
for in-house data management in order to fulfill all REACH and other national legal requirements. Implemented
XML standards and examples will be presented by differ ent industry groups and IT providers. Target groups
include manufacturers and importers of substances and mixtures, down-stream users (formulators, distributors)
and end-users (e.g. manufacturers of articles).
Due to the increase in worldwide Safety Data Sheet (SDS) requirements linked to the obligation to provide upand downstream communication and company internal hazardous material management, it is envisaged that there will be an escalating cost and effort along the complete supply chain. To maintain competitiveness, reduce effort and to keep costs down, it is essential to switch from the current paper based management to an easy-to-handle paperless SDS communication between manufacturers, importers, only representatives and downstream users. Different European institutions have developed IT solutions which are already in use e.g. in parts of the automotive industry and end-users in other industry sectors. The main objective of this workshop is to present currently available open XML standards and examples on how they have been implemented by different industry groups. Target groups include downstream users, manufacturers of articles and manufacturers and importers of substances and mixtures.