By Sphera’s Editorial Team | July 30, 2019

Pictured above are Samantha Grubich, a Sphera sales development representative, and Ryan Chappell, a Sphera Product Stewardship solution executive, at the Sphera booth at the 2019 Tennessee Safety & Health Conference.


When we’re strolling down the aisle at our favorite retailer or even perusing the inventory in our warehouses, most people aren’t thinking about all the substances that compose those items. But product stewards are—always.

Sphera recently attended the 2019 Tennessee Safety & Health Conference, which took place in the heart of Music City USA at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville. Matt Adams, Sphera’s manager of strategic initiatives, presented on the foundations of chemical management and how understanding and controlling products can drive safety, compliance and productivity across organizations.

During his presentation, Adams began with describing how chemical management requires steady navigation through the muddy waters of regulatory change. He informed attendees that insight into the chemical substances in products is critical to achieving Operational Excellence because, as regulations get more and more stringent and complex, not knowing what’s inside can lead to serious compliance issues, not to mention potential hazards for people who use and handle the products. Understanding materials begins at step one, which is knowing what products are on site and completing a thorough chemical inventory. Adams affirmed that an accurate chemical inventory management can help Environmental Health & Safety professionals by supporting visibility, communication strategy, compliance reporting and decision-making.

When Communicator became a Sphera product earlier this year, it created an unprecedented opportunity for the chemical management space—a best-in-breed solution for organizations to mitigate risk in any part of the product lifecycle. Professional Chemical Inventory Services provide the ability to start with an accurate chemical library, with minimal business disruption, so organizations can do what they do best … make products. (Learn how one client made that happen for their business.)

On top of all that, robust chemical management systems such as Communicator enable teams to maintain control of their inventory and prevent unwanted chemicals from entering facilities. A flexible and logical material approval system can intuitively involve appropriate stakeholders and ensure the right data is in the right hands at the right time to make the right decisions about inventory control. In addition, the best organizational leaders can leverage data by generating compliant labels and reports on chemicals, chemical properties, regulatory cross references and more!

A successful chemical management system empowers users to do the following:

  • Ensure worker safety and compliance by allowing all employees to easily access the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) and associated chemical data for each hazardous chemical.
  • Deliver insight into, and controls around, every chemical that is requested, arrives at, moves around and through, and ultimately departs facilities.
  • Support the safety, compliance and commercial needs of the business by facilitating powerful reporting on any chemical-related data at any time.

No matter the industry, the pressure is on to meet the constantly changing product compliance and regulatory requirements. Chemical lifecycle management is vital to workplace safety and a key performance measure for your business.

Start with a firm foundation; learn more about Inventory Services.