AkzoNobel Implements Lab Safety Standard with BIOVIA CISPro Chemical Inventory Management System
Challenge: Managing chemicals, addressing safety regulations, and containing associated costs
AkzoNobel is a leading worldwide producer of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals headquartered in Amsterdam. The company has 50,000 employees in 80 countries.
In 2012, AkzoNobel published a Laboratory Safety Standard addressing assets, procedures, people and substances within all R&D and QC laboratories across the enterprise. To meet this corporate safety standard, they conducted a comprehensive substance inventory to document existing chemical stores with substance names/labeling, quantities, amounts, dates, locations, owners, hazard ratings and safety data sheets for more than 10,000 containers. Student interns captured all this information on Excel spreadsheets, but this labor-intensive and time-consuming methodology was not sustainable for a company that is leading the way in sustainability, innovation and radical efficiency. For this reason, AkzoNobel opted to explore digital alternatives to managing chemicals and supplies in accordance with their Laboratory Safety Standard.