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The only AI-powered Middle Office Platform that unifies PLM, QMS, EHS, and SRM into a single, intelligent solution
Product Lifecycle Management
Enable cross-functional collaboration and accelerate your product lifecycle with a cloud-based platform for innovation
Design Process and Quality System Development Tools in Product Lifecycle
Design Quality
Get full visibility over your product design processes and make collaboration easy to get your products to market faster, compliantly
Design Quality: Connecting Design to Documentation
Complaints Management
Transform customer complaints to valuable sources of insights for continuous improvement through smart automations and integrated regulatory reporting
Challenges with Triage and Investigation in Complaints Management Process
Document and Learning Management
Say goodbye to paper! Modernize your processes with connected document, training, and change management
Manufacturing Challenges and Industry Trends Towards Digital Transformation
Quality Management
Transform quality into an enabler: boost efficiency, increase satisfaction, and trim costs with a fully connected, AI-powered quality management solution
Frost Radar for Quality Management Systems Names ComplianceQuest Leader
Risk Management
Enable risk-based thinking throughout your quality processes with a fully integrated risk management solution
Automation of the Risk Management Lifecycle with AI and Analytics
Supplier Management
Increase supplier performance, reduce costs, and streamline your supply chain with integrated supplier quality and collaboration tools
The Ultimate Guide to Next-Generation Supplier Management [e-Book]
Safety Management
Identify and minimize safety events. Prevent accidents, safeguard workers, and ensure their well-being and health
Safety Essentials: Key ‘Must-have’ Components for Safety Management at Any Enterprise
Environment and Sustainability
Proactively and accurately monitor and measure your company’s impact on the environment to improve performance and reach your environmental and sustainability targets
Environmental & Sustainability Management
Electronic and Automated Approach to Audit Management
Managing the Tools of the Trade
Manage Operational Risk Tracking, Evaluation, Mitigation and monitoring
Leveraging CAPA for Continuous Improvement
Ensure your laboratory is compliant with systematic and efficient laboratory investigations
Incident Reporting and Management
Organization, Collaboration and Governance for Efficient Changes
Conduct smart management review meetings with a tower of data to improve your quality and safety systems
Gain 360 degree vision into enterprise wide Safety risks
Enhance Safety and Compliance with Smarter Chemical Management
Ensuring Quality across Departments & Locations
Partner With Suppliers And Vendors To Improve Quality And Safety
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Streamline Permit Management and Ensure Compliance
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ComplianceQuest covers the whole spectrum of customers, industries and regions across the world. Whether it is a small, medium or enterprise sized manufacturer, companies choose ComplianceQuest for its end-to-end Product Lifecycle, Quality, Safety and Supplier Management Solutions.
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American Society on Quality World Conference on Quality and Improvement
04 May, 2025
Denver, CO
About
About ComplianceQuest
Transform to a fully connected business with a next-generation AI-powered Product Lifecycle, Quality, Safety, and Supplier management platform, built on Salesforce.
Our connected suite of solutions helps businesses of all sizes increase product, quality, safety, and supplier as they bring their products from concept to customer success.
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Workplace safety, employee well-being, and patient safety are critical factors for success in the life sciences industry. This includes companies across medical devices, pharma and biotech, biomedical technology companies, healthcare firms, etc. Also, all these sectors are highly regulated and health & safety leaders need to ensure that all OSHA and other safety compliance requirements are being followed.
In addition to general workplace safety guidelines, it is also important for life sciences companies to plan safety precautions against the use of hazardous chemicals, biological hazards, etc.
Broadly, some of the risks to employee well-being in the life sciences industry come from the following:
While these risks are unavoidable due to the nature of the work being carried out in the life sciences industry, the companies can minimize incidents and promote the safety of the employees by:
Purely from a business perspective, emphasis on employee health is crucial to avoid absenteeism due to injuries and the resultant loss of productivity. Incidents can also affect the bottom line, due to an increase in worker compensation, litigation, and penalties. Worse, it can corrode the brand’s reputation, causing a loss of revenue.
There is no doubt that health and safety can drive competitive advantage in the life sciences industry, especially when is it proactive and there is an enterprise-wide safety culture.
Over the last several years, regulations and standards have guided businesses in ensuring environment, health, and safety management in their organizations. However, often in the rush to meet deadlines and business goals, safety has become more reactive and a compliance issue. Businesses respond when there is an event but do not proactively prioritize safety.
For a proactive approach to workplace safety, we recommend a holistic approach. The 12 steps that businesses can implement to ensure the workplace is truly safe for the employees and the environment include:
1. Proactive and Periodic Risk Assessment Processes Must Become Routine: A workplace has many potential hazards, some of which need a process and cultural change. Safety leaders must identify the hazards, evaluate their severity, and prioritize the risks, put in place controls and measures to eliminate or reduce their impact. Documenting the risks and the controls, providing appropriate training, and putting up notices are some of the ways in which the risks can be contained.
2. Lab Safety Measures – Design Robust Systems and Processes: The laboratory can be a highly unsafe place in the life sciences industry due to the use of chemicals and biological hazards. Therefore, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends making the labs safe by:
3. Proper, Meaningful Training for Employees: Often, employees are skeptical about the effectiveness of safety measures and may continue to indulge in unsafe actions. Proper training and awareness are important to ensure a change in the mindset.
This requires:
4. Health & Safety Standards in Handling Chemicals: Chemicals can cause short- and long-term health and environmental hazards and therefore need to be handled carefully. Otherwise, it can lead to releases, explosions, and fire. One of the mitigative measures can be using the classification of chemicals to identify hazardous chemicals. Labeling, storing, and transporting these chemicals should be done in compliance with regulations. Emergency showers can be installed to enable the staff coming in contact with them to wash them away quickly. Wearing PPE should also be mandatory when handling chemicals. Having handy eyewash stations and fire extinguishers and providing emergency exit routes in case of an explosion or fire is also important. Training also plays a critical role in the proper handling of hazardous chemicals.
5. Maintain Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS): MSDS is a master document with information on the potential hazards of the chemicals and how to handle them safely. It forms the foundation for the health and safety program in a laboratory detailing the correct usage, storage, handling, and emergency procedures for hazardous materials. Prepared by the supplier or the manufacturer, it is much more than a label, acting as a guide to prevent events or handle them effectively in case of one.
6. Safe Disposal of Lab Waste: This is an oft-neglected area. Chemicals should not be poured down the sink but deposited in designated disposal bins or containers. Unused reagents should not be poured back into the bottle but instead, disposed of safely. For biological cultures, it is important to know whether soap and water are enough to clean the dish or if it needs a stronger agent. Sharp objects such as needles, glass containers, and razors also need to be disposed of carefully.
7. Safe Use of Equipment: The laboratory equipment and the manufacturing equipment are also potential causes of accidents if not handled and maintained properly. Periodic, preventive maintenance, use only by trained employees, proper plugging and unplugging procedures, etc. need to be observed diligently to avoid accidents.
8. Handling Inflammable Material: Inflammable material should be identified and stored in fireproof cabinets. They should always be placed back in the cabinet after use and not left lying around. Bunsen burners and other hot surfaces should be handled with care. Following instructions when producing substances with explosive properties are important. The fire extinguisher should be kept handy and the staff trained to use it.
9. Conduct Experiments Only in the Lab: Carrying work at home is not uncommon, but when it comes to lab equipment, this should be discouraged. Even the clothes one uses when in the lab should be washed thoroughly before reuse.
10. Incident Management: Prepare a plan of action for the identified risks and train designated staff to respond appropriately in case of an incident. The incident should also be recorded and the data should be shared to use the learnings for preventing future recurrence and reporting.
11. Permit to Work: Having a strong permit to work process is essential to ensure that only authorized staff is allowed to work in high-risk areas or handle high-risk chemicals and biologics.
12. Top Management Commitment: The senior management must lead the safety efforts from the front. This will convince employees of the importance of safe behavior and comply with guidelines and rules more diligently, improving the safety of the workplace.
At ComplianceQuest, we’ve helped life sciences companies in 1200+ locations around the world automate their quality, health, safety, and environment management system with our modern, next-generation QHSE solution. Our QHSE solution is scalable, flexible, and comes with in-built risk management capabilities. We also make sure health and safety professionals have data at their fingertips, can collaborate with ease, and track open action items to closure. It also has a world-class management review solution, to ensure seamless communication among executive leaders, the health and safety team, and the rest of the organization.
With CQ EHS, you can automate incident, document, audit and risk management, near-misses and safety observations analytics, supplier safety management, management reviews, and permit to work.
If you’d like to get a personalized demo of how we can help you streamline your health and safety processes, request a demo here: https://www.compliancequest.com/lp/ehs/
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