Organizations relying on chemical inventory lists to support their R&D or production operations are setting themselves up for compliance and operational failure.
The reality is that the managers in life sciences, higher education, pharmaceutical, and similar industries need a full chemical inventory manager program to ensure safety, efficiency, and the ability to pass audits. Such a program also requires a robust chemical inventory management solution, with a modern database powering it. First, we’ll define the systems we’re discussing.Â
What Is a Chemical Inventory List?
A chemical inventory list is a paper-based or electronic database (such as an Excel spreadsheet) that offers minimal additional information or relevant documents (such as safety data sheets).
What Is a Chemical Inventory Manager?
On the other hand, a full chemical inventory management system contains:
- Lists of chemicals (preferable in electronic format)
- Chemical side effects
- Manufacturer specifications
- And more
Our team often works with clients who confuse the capabilities of a chemical inventory list versus a chemical inventory manager. With that in mind, we’ll briefly review the capabilities of a chemical inventory management program.
Eight Chemical Inventory Manager Benefits:Â Â
- Support for safety data archiving: All key documents and information, such as safety data sheets (SDSs), are in one managed repository.
- Embedded rules: The system corrects errors in real time.
- Linkage to specific bottles: Data is recorded at the chemical bottle code level.
- Site tree support: The solution is easily populated via embedded templates/maps.
- Embedded support for data accountability practices: The system ensures every end user is responsible for keeping the information accurate and current.
- Search capabilities: Users can quickly query the system and receive relevant data.
- Automated updates: The solution pulls data from any designated source and makes it available to stakeholders.
- Structure for data: End users must enter all information accurately, according to embedded rules, which enables guided formatting for ease of use and accuracy.
Weaknesses in any of these eight areas can make chemical data errors likely. That risks compliance, efficiency, and safety. And managers must always understand that infractions of worker chemical safety rules are all too common.
As an EHS Daily article points out, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) most frequently cited industry standard is the one governing hazard communication. Violation of the statute can be costly, too. The article notes how a manufacturer that failed to develop a hazardous communications program for its workers (handling dangerous chemicals) received a $289,439 fine.
Chemical Inventory Lists Can’t Support Full Compliance
Unfortunately, not every manager realizes the differences between a basic inventory list and a full management program. Too many of them also don’t understand that the list provides only a skeleton of data. It provides the chemicals’ names but doesn’t break out all the other key chemical information and documentation. These include:
- Standard operating procedures (SOPs), which are a key part of a Chemical Hygiene Plan (CHP)
- Hazards
- Action plans
- And more
Chemical Information Is Key for:
- Employees working with and around the chemicals
- First responders, who must create emergency plans in case of an event
- Administrators responsible for compliance around maximum allowable quantity (MAQ) limits and other requirements
Such a management system and solution enable compliance and success in ways that a simple chemical inventory list can’t. We’ll list eight differences between the approaches below.
Along with other data and documentation, an SDS is essential for safe and efficient chemical management. A list can’t carry this valuable information: a full manager can. Since OSHA aligned with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS), the agency requires all employers to maintain up-to-date databases of onsite chemicals.
An SDS Allows Managers to:
- Gain real-time insights into chemical inflows/outflows
- Easily comply with MAQ rules
- Comply with fire department and other safety limits (failure to adhere to local fire department regulations is a common, if unexpected, reason for labs to face fines and shutdowns)
Two: Chemical Inventory Lists Silo Data
Lists are typically distributed without any centralized data warehousing. They also don’t offer embedded or automated inventory updates, nor reconciliation and correction capabilities. This type of system predictably requires frequent manual updates across multiple spreadsheets or paper documents. The greater reliance on workers to build out—and maintain—the lists, the greater the risk of errors via duplication or other inaccuracies—leading to a host of problems, including flawed reporting.
With a full chemical inventory management solution, there is a sole source of truth, enabled by centralized, highly managed data. There are no silos—any worker inputting data into a tablet or cellphone is sending it into a central information warehouse, with embedded rules to maintain accuracy and retrievability.Â
Three: Chemical Inventory Lists Don’t Link to Physical Bottles
Chemical list systems can’t scan a bottle and pull up the related substance type’s associated profiles and SDS. This means users must gather the information manually, a time-eating, cumbersome process.
Chemical inventory management systems can directly link a bottle’s code to a corresponding SDS. Users can simply scan the unique quick response (QR) code stickers affixed to each bottle. Then the system will immediately perform a chemical lookup, offering locations and updates for the substance. This is not only a great time saver, but a way to avoid error.
Four: Chemical Inventory Lists Lack Dynamic Inventory Site Trees
Lists can’t readily model and populate a full site by location mapping. This usually means employees and managers must rely on their own individual memories to pinpoint where a chemical is in a facility. Or they must take the time to review location information within the chemical list (if such data is included). If that team member leaves, the location knowledge goes with them.
A chemical inventory management system, on the other hand, offers a dynamic site tree—this is a map of the facility that lists the exact chemicals stored in each area.
A Chemical Inventory Manager Maps a Complete Facility by:
- Building
- Lab
- Storage location (like flame cabs, hoods, and fridges)
This ensures the general inventory consistently contains the sub-locations—making timely reporting on chemicals and their locations easier. It also enables recording one-offs in any given facility, lab, or production environment.
Five: Paper Chemical Lists/Spreadsheets Don’t Support Data Maintenance Accountability
Any organization with multiple employees, facilities, labs, etc. will likely be working off multiple chemical inventory lists—without any way to ensure each worker is adhering to requirements and best practices.
For one, this creates difficulties in assigning responsibility to oversee the updating and accuracy of the chemical inventory list. When anyone can anonymously input data without regard to its accuracy, confusion is likely and data accuracy and discipline are difficult.
 Successful Organizations Bolster Data Accountability by:
- Assigning chemicals to specific workers
- Track consumption across multiple labs/worksites
- Update as inventories change (reductions/additions)
- Detect errors, duplications, misspellings, and more
Ultimately, every worker is following the same set of protocols—this increases trust in the system and improves accuracy and efficiency.
Six: Chemical Inventory Managers Provide Centralized, High-Speed Search Capabilities
The larger the organization, the more complex, inefficient, and time-consuming a chemical information search can be. Employees are challenged when locating chemicals—and retrieving their SDSs. In enterprise-sized organizations, because of the sizes of the inventories being tracked, paper binder systems simply become near-unusable. And even Excel-based data files grow until they are cumbersome, bogging down users seeking info to review or update.
On the other hand, with a robust, standard chemical software application, the size of the organization doesn’t matter. The system can scale up without any special fixes—and will continue to centralize, format, and arrange all data. Then, managers and staff can easily use a web-based interface to search the database—and quickly pull up the SDSs or other documentation or info needed.
Seven: Chemical Inventory Management Software Provides Automated Updates
Team members must frequently and regularly collate and update chemical inventory lists. This makes accurate reporting nearly impossible, and never completely verifiable. As we’ve noted above, this introduces unacceptable risk into the system.
Compare this with full chemical inventory management solutions. They are always refreshing by taking feeds from users and any connected systems. These solutions pull GHS and other hazard data straight from the appropriate SDS. With a single query, researchers and first responders can pull up every risk and how to contain them. Not only is this capability an OSHA and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirement, but it’s also the only way to routinely empower every team member with knowledge.
Eight: Chemical Inventory Lists Don’t Offer Structure to Data Formatting and Inputting
Typically, with a chemical inventory list, no one single employee oversees the collection of chemical data inputs. Multiple workers will maintain the list—lacking any oversight. This invites errors like accidental line-item deletions, misspellings, or just vague or near-useless data entry.
Contrast that with a chemical inventory management solution. It has embedded rules to guide those interacting with it (as we mentioned in section two), and actually benefits from a high volume of users contributing data. Strong formatting guardrails and prefilled data fields save time and enable greater accuracy, with minimum effort.
Partnering for Chemical Inventory Management Success
As we can see, reliance on chemical inventory lists is a recipe for errors. Organizations must aim to roll out a full manager program—which requires a robust software solution.
Selecting the proper chemical inventory management software package and implementing the proper practices can be a major challenge. Fortunately, there are experienced partners to assist you in securing the right package, setting it up, and supporting it.
Triumvirate Environmental is such a partner. Want some assistance? Talk to us today about your specific chemical inventory management needs.
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