ChemAlert review by Qantas Airways Ltd

Overview

As one of the world’s most pre-eminent airline brands with a strong reputation for safety, Qantas takes compliance and safety very seriously. Being an airline, it requires the use of many different chemical products in its operations, using more than 4000 different chemicals across its 250 work sites based in Australia and around the globe.

Qantas needed an enterprise grade Chemical Safety Management system with a track record for performance within large organisation. Specifically, the system needed to be able to recognise and meet legislative requirements, create efficient processes and provide up-to date and compliant SDS’s.

They also wanted to deal with a vendor that could provide a high level of service and support to ensure correct implementation, training and ongoing support so they could maintain the highest levels of safety and compliance.

The Challenge

Qantas’ previous system had a significant number of Safety Data Sheets that were out of date and therefore non-compliant, a significant concern for Qantas. The problem was compounded by the fact that the legacy system did not provide an accurate way of determining which products were non-compliant and why.

The system was also not conducive to developing, amending or reviewing risk assessments, a key requirement to ongoing safety.
In addition, the supplier often required Qantas to source their own SDSs and then charged to add them to the system and was unable to provide SDS’s to meet the different regional and language requirements of Qantas’s global operations.

The Solution

After careful consideration, ChemAlert was chosen as the preferred provider in 2011. Having successfully been used by other large companies including airlines, RMT was able to provide the support required for a successful and seamless transition, including migrating the data across from the old system. As ChemAlert is a cloud hosted (SaaS) service, it provided easy accessibility and a one-stop shop for all chemical safety management data and information for Qantas’s global workforce. The user-friendly interface makes it simple to maintain SDS’s, risk assessments are documented, and alerts are issued when action is required.

ChemAlert also came backed with RMT’s service and customised support.

Outcome

Qantas now has an accessible and efficient global chemical safety management system including an SDS authoring and regulatory advice service that is up to date on the all the local and regional compliance requirements. The employees can access information in their local language, and ChemAlert also allows for guided risk assessments that can be tracked, reviewed and updated, adding a further layer of safety and reassurance for its use of chemicals across its international operations.