Today's rapidly changing business
environment confronts managers with a complex set of internal and
external stakeholder demands. Senior management is seeking increased
efficiencies and cost savings to remain competitive in the global
marketplace while maintaining a safe workplace. At the same time, an
organization's customers seek assurance that it can meet exacting
standards for quality; avoid disruptions due to economic, environmental,
health, safety and, more recently, security factors; and lower costs
through more efficient production and better management of the supply
chain. In addition to these important business drivers, managers must
continue to respond to the public's environmental, health, safety and
security (EHSS) performance expectations for the organization's
manufacturing activities, as well as its products, as they move from
production to final use and disposal.
The American Chemistry Council's member
companies and Responsible Care partners developed the RC14001 technical
specification as a tool to better integrate EHSS activities within their
business operations while also meeting commercial and other stakeholder
demands for improved performance. RC14001 uses the ISO 14001
environmental management system (EMS) standard as a platform, adding
health and safety and security issues to the management system's scope.
RC14001 also includes specific Responsible Care elements related to
transportation and supply chain management, product stewardship and
stakeholder engagement, all of which require managers to consider hazard
and risk issues well beyond their organization's physical boundaries.
Organizations that have conducted RC14001
audits report improvements in the following areas: employee training and
awareness, purchasing controls for EHSS service providers and vendors,
integration of EHSS goals and objective-setting processes, contractor
qualification and selection, integrating internal auditing procedures,
and coordination and management of the EHSS-related activities (e.g.,
sales, marketing, research and development, commercial partner
selection, security, etc.) traditionally "owned" at the corporate or
business- division level.
The American Chemistry Council (www .americanchemistry.com)
is the nation's largest trade association representing the business of
chemistry. ACC's 130 member companies and their 880,000 employees
represent about 85 percent of the total chemical production volume in
the United States. These organizations manufacture thousands of products
that are essential to our modern way of life.
Responsible Care, the industry's EHSS
performance-improvement initiative, was adopted by ACC as an obligation
of membership in 1988. In 1992, ACC expanded the initiative's reach by
creating a partnership program for organizations such as barge, rail,
warehouse, bulk-liquid terminal storage and trucking companies, all of
which handle chemicals in the supply chain. The Responsible Care partner
program now includes more than 80 companies ranging from class one
railroads to logistics management companies.
Responsible Care is centered on key
requirements that are intended to improve the overall performance of the
industry, respond to stakeholder concerns regarding the industry's
operations and its products, and assist companies in improving their
overall business operations. These key Responsible Care requirements
include annual reporting of specific EHSS performance data on a publicly
available Web site (www.responsiblecare-us.com);
adhering to a set of guiding principles that establish the framework
for EHSS activities; implementing a security code that requires
enhancements of physical (i.e., site) security, cyber security and
security of products in the supply chain; and certifying Responsible
Care management systems through a third-party audit process.
RC14001 was developed as one option for
Responsible Care third-party certification for ACC members and partners
in 2002. Member companies requested that a process be developed to allow
them to meet customer demands for ISO 14001 while also meeting their
ACC Responsible Care certification requirements. Successful completion
of the audit results in two certificates, one for ISO 14001 and one for
RC14001. A second option for certification, known as RCMS, was developed
for use by companies that want to meet their ACC certification
requirements, but have no need for ISO 14001 certification. Like
RC14001, RCMS is a classic policy-plan-do-check-act management system
model, but is focused specifically on Responsible Care elements and
doesn't include certain requirements found in ISO 14001 and RC14001.
RC14001 is available to any organization regardless of its business
profile, provided its audit meets ACC certification requirements. (See www.rctoolkit.com for information on the Responsible Care initiative and its key requirements.)
The initial
question asked by individuals unfamiliar with the Responsible Care
certification process concerns the differences between RC14001 and ISO
14001. There are a number of significant differences, beginning with the
expanded scope of the audit. RC14001 follows ISO 14001's outline in its
entirety, and companies seeking RC14001 certification must demonstrate
conformance to ISO 14001 to successfully gain their RC14001 certificate.
However, wherever the word "environment" appears in the ISO 14001 text,
companies implementing RC14001 are required to add "Responsible Care
health, safety and security" to the scope of the activity. The
environmental policy now becomes an environment, health, safety and
security policy or, better yet, a Responsible Care policy. Aspects and
impacts, goals and objectives, and timetables now include a wider range
of activities, including health and safety factors as well as security
issues.
By expanding the scope of the management
system, organizations have the opportunity to take a holistic view of
their operations and products and to include multiple management
disciplines in the system's development and implementation. As
management silos are breached, the organization can begin to take
advantage of cross-functional expertise and the more efficient use of
pooled resources. RC14001 provides organizations with the opportunity to
integrate their processes and procedures in planning, training,
compliance monitoring, corrective action and measurement, record
keeping, document control and management review. A number of ACC
companies are integrating their quality systems with RC14001 to create a
truly seamless business operation.
In addition to expanding the scope of the
existing ISO 14001 elements, RC14001 includes 27 new requirements in the
management system. These additional requirements focus on activities
that the chemical industry and other business sectors have historically
viewed as critical to the success of Responsible Care (or EHSS for
non-ACC companies), including maintaining up-to-date risk information on
products and processes, assessing transportation-routing risk for
products, recognizing employee EHSS excellence, engaging in proactive
outreach and dialogue with stakeholders, participating in industry
mutual assistance activities, qualifying commercial partners based on
EHSS performance, measuring the EHSS performance of commercial partners,
determining if customers can safely handle products, and assessing
security vulnerabilities. In many cases, interactions with commercial
partners aren't managed at the plant level, so an organization seeking
RC14001 certification may be required to include headquarters and/or
business unit personnel in the audit process. This can be an eye-opening
process for departments and individuals who may have viewed themselves
as immune from previous EHSS audits.
The chemical
industry, like other sectors, is subject to market forces that require
the efficient delivery of product to its customers. In the matter of
chemical products, efficient delivery also means getting the product to
the customer safely and with minimal disruption due to accidents or
worker injuries. Selection of the correct carriers, toll manufacturers,
storage facilities and logistics providers to support product movement
to customers is a critical piece of the chemical business. Likewise,
chemical companies are equally concerned about the ability of customers
(and often their customers' customers) to handle their products safely.
For more than 15 years, ACC members have worked closely with their
commercial partners to steward products through the supply chain,
sharing the industry's experience, knowledge and resources to eliminate
any possibility that chemicals might be mishandled or otherwise misused.
RC14001 includes a number of requirements
that focus on the industry's supply chain concerns and require specific
product-stewardship actions, including reviewing EHSS performance when
selecting a commercial partner (e.g., carriers, contractors, toll
manufacturers, suppliers, etc.), reviewing
commercial partners' ongoing performance on a periodic basis, and
sharing risk information and working with commercial partners (including
customers) to ensure safe handling of products. ACC members have
learned that robust interactions on EHSS issues can help solidify
existing supply chain relationships, lead to increased business
opportunities and spread the Responsible Care ethic to others. RC14001
reinforces these requirements and opportunities.
Following the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, ACC's member companies quickly closed ranks
and moved to further strengthen the security of chemical operations and
the chemical supply chain. Although the industry had always been
concerned about the security of its operations, it was a traditional
focus aimed at maintaining safe working conditions and operations,
preventing acts of retaliation by disgruntled employees, or preventing
theft of product and/or proprietary information. In 2002, ACC adopted a
mandatory security code for its members and Responsible Care partners
that required assessments of security vulnerabilities and implementation
of countermeasures at company sites, within information
technology/cyberstructure and along the supply chain. The code was
written in a plan-do-check-act format so it could be incorporated into
the RC14001 (and RCMS) management system model.
Organizations seeking RC14001 certification
are required to make security an integral part of their management
systems. As a result, security issues can be found among company aspects
and impacts, employees are receiving security training, countermeasures
are being implemented by organizations at their locations and in
concert with their commercial partners along the supply chain, and
security has become part of the internal checking, corrective action and
management review processes. RC14001 certification and its continuing
surveillance audits will continue to ensure that robust security
programs are part of company management systems.
In creating its
Responsible Care certification process, ACC determined that it was
necessary to develop a process that met the high expectations of its
membership and the industry's stakeholders. Registrars seeking to
conduct RC14001 audits must first be accredited to conduct ISO 14001
audits and then must conduct an additional witness audit for RC14001.
RC14001 witness audits are conducted under the supervision of the
ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (www.anab.org)
using established processes. As part of its commitment to continuous
improvement, ACC is also working with registrars to identify common
trends being reported on RC14001 certification audits so it can assist
its members in improving their management systems and performance.
Individual auditors must meet ACC expe
rience and qualification requirements to ensure that they have
sufficient knowledge and expertise. ACC also requires auditors to attend
and pass accredited Responsible Care auditor courses that provide
comprehensive instruction on the initiative and its requirements,
including new security issues. Finally, each auditor participating in
the process is required to be certified by RABQSA International (www.rabqsa.com) or the Board of Environment, Health and Safety Auditor Certifications (www.beac.org). Auditor certification requirements include passing a Responsible Care test administered by BEAC.
In an effort to reach out to local
stakeholders and make RC14001 more transparent, ACC has strongly
encouraged its members to include the local public in their auditing
process. To date, several ACC companies have invited local residents to
attend all or part of their RC14001 audit as observers. In several
cases, auditors have requested and been given access to local chemical
company-sponsored community advisory panels (CAPs) so that they could
gather evidence on the organization's implementation of outreach
requirements found in the RC14001. ACC members are also sharing the
results of their audits with local stakeholders as another example of
meeting public expectations for transparency.
The RC14001
technical specification is providing ACC member companies, Responsible
Care partners and a growing number of companies outside the chemical
industry with a powerful tool to drive performance improvement and
integrate their management systems. Although still a relative newcomer
to the list of established management systems models, RC14001 has
attracted widespread interest from companies in the oil and gas,
automotive supply, mining, and other business sectors both in the United
States and overseas. By giving companies the opportunity to conduct a
single audit covering a comprehensive set of requirements, business
managers can respond to multiple internal and external stakeholder
expectations while minimizing the need for competing management systems
models.
Daniel Roczniak is the director of Responsible Care implementation
and performance at the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Virginia, where he manages ACC's Responsible Care certification and mutual assistance programs. QD
http://dramarnathgiri.blogspot.in/search?q=MANAGEMENT+SYSTEMS+AT+NFCL
and performance at the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Virginia, where he manages ACC's Responsible Care certification and mutual assistance programs. QD
http://dramarnathgiri.blogspot.in/search?q=MANAGEMENT+SYSTEMS+AT+NFCL
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