Manufacturers are seeing a rapid expansion in the number and scope of regulations around product and packaging recycling, such as the European Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) is helping Panasonic comply with these worldwide product end-of-life regulations and retailer mandates with the SAP Recycling Administration application. In addition to compliance, the application helps Panasonic to be more efficient and reduce both recycling and operational costs. The use of the software drives excellence in recycling and reuse, which is an important aspect of any customer’s sustainable supply chain and products business case – with the ultimate goal of protecting the brand while designing, manufacturing and distributing innovative, safe and compliant products.
Panasonic uses SAP Recycling Administration to classify recyclable materials by type, weight, usage, destination, brand and category. The software is tightly integrated with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) application SAP ERP to support countries with different and evolving compliance requirements and to offer a central data repository to address regulatory requirements. Panasonic is continuing to roll out the application throughout its European offices and is currently using it for 50 various compliance schemes.
“With SAP Recycling Administration, we could improve the recycling data management process significantly – representing a 50 percent time savings across 18 countries and 50 different compliance schemes,” said Thomas Knopp, Environmental Project Manager, Panasonic Europe. “The application also allows us to generate more accurate calculations of product net weight, the basis for recycling charges per the WEEE directive, and consequently, has reduced recycling costs by 15 percent, which adds up to millions of dollars every year.”
More than 30 U.S. states and Canadian provinces employ legislation for e-waste recycling, and large retailers are mandating that manufacturers report detailed information about the sustainability status of their products and packaging on a regular basis in order to show improvements over time. As such, many consumer electronics manufacturers plan to roll-out SAP Recycling Administration to address these emerging global issues in the North American market. Failure to meet the requirements could lead to severe consequences, including costly fees, competitive disadvantage or brand damage.
The cost, time and complexity of meeting these various requirements can be a burden for many companies. SAP Recycling Administration enables Panasonic to not only meet regulatory requirements and reduce the risk and cost of environmental reporting, but is also an important component of its corporate strategy to become the No. 1 green innovation company in the electronics industry by 2018.
Source: SAP.
