7 million per year. 90,400 per week. 12,900 per year. Any way you look at it, the number of workplace injuries in the US is astronomically high.
This results in unsafe workplaces and pain for employees, but also in extensive lawsuits being filed against your company. It’s important that you have well-managed SDS software to keep people aware of chemical hazards in the workplace.
Here, we’re going to talk about some of the reasons that going digital with these documents is the right choice. Read on to learn how online SDS management can benefit your organization.
1. Process and Store More Data
People in some industries, such as the medical sector and scientific facilities, may work with hundreds of hazardous materials. This means that there is a lot of data that must be included on SDS sheets since you will need to file one for every chemical that you possess.
Recording and processing this manually would be extremely difficult and time-consuming. Doing so on paper would also take up a lot of space. You would need to find a location to store enormous stacks of documents.
With our online SDS management strategy, we will scan and index your SDSs for you before electronically downloading them onto your network. You then can run reports and analysis of your materials more easily. SDS sheets can also easily be sent to your users on the platform.
2. Stay Organized
As you may imagine, having all documents digitized and out of the way keeps your business more organized. Users won’t need to sift through large binders and folders to find an SDS for any specific chemical. Instead, it’s easy to use the search function on digital software to find the document that they are looking for.
Having many paper documents also heightens the possibility that something will be lost. This not only is unsafe but also can lead to legal issues for your business if someone is injured by a chemical that you can’t find documents for. If this injury predates the date on your documents, you might find yourself facing a major lawsuit.
Digitized documentation prevents these serious problems from occurring by keeping you organized and keeping your information accessible.
3. Save Time and Money
SDS sheets save your team time because they don’t need to spend hours manually sifting through papers. However, it also saves time in other ways. Workers won’t need to stand at a coper making enough copies for every MSDS library in your work facility.
As most people will tell you, time is money. Saving time therefore saves your business cash that can be reallocated into other services and experiments.
Managing data online will also save you money because training people to use and navigate online sheets is much easier. You won’t need to waste money paying highly qualified people to do menial tasks and can instead pay them for skilled labor. Leave tasks that can be automated to online data management; let employees put their experience to good use and actually grow your profits.
4. View SDSs Anywhere and Anytime
Print SDS sheets can only be accessed while employees are actually present in your facility. However, the modern workplace is evolving to allow people to work from home. Even if you’re not the kind of business that can fully shift to a WFH framework, it still can benefit you to allow employees to manage paperwork and review protocols when they aren’t on the clock.
An online SDS management service is accessible on devices both in the workplace and outside it. It’s stored on a network that can be accessed externally so long as the user is authorized.
This lets people check the SDS forms from their mobile devices. Since the average American checks their Smartphone 96 times per day, this is a great way to ensure that your team has access to safety data sheets whenever they want it.
5. Create a Sustainable Workplace
We talked earlier about the many reams of paper that will be needed to store safety data physically. Since SDS forms have 16 data points for each chemical, even having just a few physical SDSs can consume a lot of paper. This destroys trees and paper-processing resources that could easily be saved.
This is important because we all have a responsibility towards the environment if there is a viable, eco-conscious alternative. As a business, you should care about this even more because modern consumers value sustainability more than ever before.
This is true whether you manufacture items using chemicals that will be sold to consumers or are responsible for creating items to be distributed to other businesses. Both B2C and B2B consumers are more likely to utilize your services if you meet people’s personal values of sustainability. They even are more likely to pay a higher price to work with you!
6. Risk Reduction
Overall, using an online SDS service keeps employees in the loop about hazards in their occupation. This can literally be a matter of life and death in some facilities that work with dangerous chemicals. It also can stop negative environmental repercussions if chemicals are distributed in a way they aren’t meant to be.
On the business side of things, you also reduce the risk of fines and reputation damage. OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard requires your SDSs to be managed and up to date. Not complying with this regulation can lead to financial damage to your business.
Get Online SDS Management Today
Now that you know the main reasons that you should consider online SDS management, it’s time to get started. Contact us with any remaining questions that you have about SDS software.
Our flexible and scalable solution offers transparent pricing, automated functionality, and price matching so that you can get the highest possible ROI on your SDS management. We look forward to helping you maintain a safer workplace soon.
