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Original Date: 02/23/1998
Revision Date: 01/18/2007
Information : Chemical Review Board
In 1994, Northrop Grumman created the Chemical Review Board to pre-evaluate hazardous materials and ensure compliance to federal, state, and local regulations. Although predominantly an electronic process, the review cycle still has a manual element which involves the Chemical Review Board Committee. The company is currently changing the manual part of the cycle into an entirely electronic process which will improve turnaround time.
In 1994, Northrop Grumman created the Chemical Review Board (CRB) to evaluate hazardous material and ensure compliance to federal, state, and local regulations. The CRB was interfaced into the existing On-line Purchasing and Chemical Tracking Systems (CTS). Although predominantly an electronic process, the review cycle still has a manual element which involves the CRB Committee (comprised of personnel from Air Quality; Health & Safety; Fire Department; and Pollution Prevention). In 1998, Northrop Grumman started changing the manual part of the cycle into an entirely electronic process which will improve turnaround time.
Under the old system, the requester filled out a Chemical Review Survey Form and forwarded it to the CRB. The CRB prepared a package (containing the CRB Worksheet, the Purchase Requisition, the Chemical Review Survey Form, the Material Safety Data Sheet [MSDS], and the Air Quality Management 109 Certification Form) and forwarded a hard copy to the CRB Committee. Once the Committee reviewed it and added input, the package was returned to the CRB who distributed the information to the requester, updated the On-line Purchasing System, and scanned the MSDS into the LAZERFICHE Imaging System for retention.
The new system eliminates the hard copies and performs all the functions electronically. Once the request is received by the Chemical Review Administration, they load the request into the CRB Data Repository, scan the documents into a new document management system, EZPOWER, and electronically forward it to the CRB Committee. The Committee provides input and electronically returns it to the Chemical Review Administration who then notifies the requester and loads the information into the CTS.
The new CRB Data Repository is a dynamic relational database, with various pull-down menus that promote data accuracy with consistency between the CRB, CTS, and EZPOWER. Features to be utilized are:
Reporting capabilities;
Retention of historical data;
Web enabled;
Access to MSDSs on the Intranet; and
Approval status on the hazardous materials.
Northrop Grumman’s 1998 turnaround time is approximately four days. The company’s goal is for a two-day turnaround with cost savings in hard copies and work hours.
For more information see the
Point of Contact for this survey.
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