Divergence to Convergence: A Case Study on Implementing Enterprise-Wide EHS Information Management Systems To Drive Business Process Consistency, 2001 Environmental Conference Proceedings

Douglas H. Marcero, Sheila Galegher--Mead Corporation is implementing an enterprise-wide Environmental Management Information System. The program is centered around consistent and centralized materials data, and is being implemented in a manner that will help to drive consistent material management and environmental business processes and roles down to the "do work" level across Mead’s operations. As a result of this program, a number of site-specific business process variations are being eliminated and a number of benefits are being targeted at the site and corporate levels.

Improvements in the accuracy, consistency, and efficiency of collecting input data for materials management and environmental tracking and reporting are being driven as part of the project. For example, the corporation will be using consistent data sources across all operations and will be accessing that data electronically by integrating operations and financial systems with the environmental information system. Planning and implementing these integrations at the enterprise level is reducing implementation cost and positioning the corporation for long term cost reductions in materials management and environmental reporting and system maintenance.

Driving consistencies in environmental data management practices across the corporation enterprise is also targeted to provide other improvements. For example, the corporation’s ability to leverage staff across operations will be significantly improved once business process and tools are being used consistently. Likewise, the capability to archive, access, and analyze information consistently across operations will enable the ability to compare and drive environmental performance metrics. It will also enhance the accuracy and minimize the cost of corporate-level reporting. Finally, it will allow environmental data to be analyzed and used as the basis for planning corporate environmental initiatives and monitoring impacts and of new and proposed regulations, processes and products.