Supply Chains
Only as strong as your weakest link
Business is realising that the quality of its products and the authenticity of its brand promises is only as good as its weakest supplier.
Transparency and trust of supplier quality and ESG practices is a big challenge.
The solution is a cloud assessment platform and a supplier prime process to enables the identification of weak links and, most importantly, administer and monitor performance improvement.
Assessing quality and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors across supply chains is important for several reasons:
Risk Management
Identify potential risks that could impact a company's operations, reputation, and financial performance.
This information can help companies make more informed decisions about their suppliers and manage risks associated with their supply chain.
Brand Reputation
Consumers and investors are increasingly concerned about ESG issues, and a company's reputation can be impacted by the behaviour of its suppliers.
Assessing ESG factors across supply chains can help companies identify suppliers that align with their values and avoid those that may engage in practices that could damage their reputation.
Regulatory Compliance
Many governments and regulatory bodies are implementing new regulations and reporting requirements related to ESG issues.
Assessing ESG factors across supply chains can help companies ensure they are compliant with these regulations and avoid potential legal and financial penalties.
Business Opportunities
Assessing ESG factors across supply chains can help companies identify opportunities for innovation and growth, such as developing new sustainable products or services that meet customer demand.
Assessing ESG factors across supply chains can help companies manage risks, protect their reputation, comply with regulations, and identify new business opportunities.
Ensuring supplier ESG practices are transparent is critical. Here are some ways to ensure transparency:
Conduct supplier Assessments:
Companies can send assessments to their suppliers asking about their ESG practices, policies, and procedures. The survey should cover various topics such as environmental impact, labour standards, human rights, and governance. By conducting surveys, companies can gather information on their suppliers' ESG practices and use it to make informed decisions about their supply chain.
Conduct on-site audits:
Companies can conduct on-site audits to verify the accuracy of the information provided in the surveys. The audits can be conducted by third-party auditors or internal auditors. On-site audits provide an opportunity to observe and assess the supplier's operations and practices, which can reveal valuable information on ESG performance.
Use data sources for verification where appropriate:
These sources can come from measured outputs such as carbon emissions or water/air quality as proof of sustainable practices.
Collaboration: Companies can work collaboratively with their suppliers to promote transparency and encourage them to disclose their ESG practices. This can be done through the inclusion of ESG requirements in supplier contracts and regular communication with suppliers.
They should understand the importance of delivery of promises across the whole supply chain for success of the whole ecosystem.
Overall, ensuring supplier Quality and ESG practices are transparent requires a multi-pronged approach that involves gathering information through assessments and on-site audits, using ESG data sources, and promoting collaboration with suppliers.
Benefits
Suitable for any assessment; Compliance, Quality, Excellence
Detailed Analysis reporting and insights
Ideal for multi-scheme audits.
Easy to Integrate
A Seamless Flow: Pre-Audit, Audit,
Post-Audit
Pre-Assessment, Self-Assessment and Hybrid
Online and Offline
Remote/Hybrid
Audit - for when you can't be there in person
Eliminate duplication and double-handling costs
Real-time collaboration,
in the cloud
Multi-user. Accessible by anyone, anywhere, through any digital device
“ESG measures are of little value if they do not explicitly incorporate a firm's operations across its entire supply chain”.*
*Asia Global papers No 5. Jan 2022.Tinglong Dai Professor of Operations Management and Business Analytics, Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University Christopher S Tang UCLA Distinguished Professor and Edward W. Carter Chair in Business Administration, Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles A
Case Study: Supplying avocados to world markets
The world's supermarket chains need to ensure that their suppliers of food conform to the standards of their customers and the requirements of regulators.
They will only buy produce from producers and cooperatives that have been certified to globally recognised standards such as GLAOBALG.A.P. - Good Agriculture Practice.
Certification is done largely by auditors using spreadsheets. Spreadsheets typically lead to isolated islands of data and provide little transparency.
No one really knows what is going on!
Cooperatives in the NZ avocado industry have all elected to use the QuantumLeap cloud platform to enabled each cooperative to understand the weakest link in their grower group, develop action plans, and monitor improvement.
It also enables the whole industry to provide transparency and build a trusted, reputation as a quality supplier to the world markets.
An online, real-time, SAAS, audit reporting platform that offers visibility, consistency, reliability, integrity, control, confidence, rigour and flexibility.
Take a strategic approach to compliance rather than a tactical one.
Use QuantumLeap.
'Request a Demo' for a no-obligation demonstration of how our solution works and what potential it has for your organisation.