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Introduction
Arconic-Köfém is a leading aluminum manufacturer based in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, specialized on casting and rolling operations. The company processes aluminum both from primary and secondary sources to produce rolling ingots and extrusion billets, supplying internal production units and external partners. With a strong commitment to environmental, health, and safety (EHS) excellence, Arconic-Köfém operates in a highly regulated industrial environment where strict chemical compliance is not optional, it’s a base requirement.
To support its complex manufacturing activities, Arconic-Köfém maintains a chemical approval and management system that must address occupational safety, environmental protection, industrial hygiene, customs classification, fire safety, and regulatory reporting. As the complexity of chemical substances and related obligations have grown, the company recognized the need to modernize its chemical management system.
Challenges
Prior to implementing denxpert Chemical management software, Arconic-Köfém used a custom-built Microsoft Access-based solution to manage chemical approval workflows. While this legacy database initially fulfilled basic tracking needs, over time it became a bottleneck in ensuring efficient, traceable, and risk-based chemical control.
Key challenges included:
- Fragmented and manual workflows: Each chemical approval required email communication between requestors and a designated chemical officer, who manually collected safety data sheets (SDS), technical datasheets, and completed approval forms. Data was then entered into the Access database, which triggered no automatic follow-ups or task assignments.
- Lack of reliability and maintainability: The Access-based solution was developed and maintained by a single external freelancer. As technical issues began to emerge—such as duplicate approval numbers and slow database performance—the lack of timely support created serious operational risks.
- Dispersed stakeholder involvement: Each new substance had to be reviewed by multiple subject-matter experts (SMEs), including EHS engineers, industrial hygienists, occupational physicians, customs officers, and fire safety staff from different organizational units. Coordinating their input by emailing them one-by-one manually needed a lot of administrative capacity which was inefficient and error-prone.
- Non-standardized documentation: Hazard communication elements such as labels or chemical safety instructions were created using separate Excel files. Manual effort was required to print compliant labels and track storage conditions or usage restrictions.
- Limited regulatory filtering: Arconic-Köfém needed a way to identify chemicals flagged under specific lists, e.g., SVHC, but the legacy system could not support dynamic filtering or tagging for these regulatory frameworks.
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