Supply Chain Auditing

Catastrophes caused by faulty products, including public safety incidents, serious environmental disasters and widespread social exploitation are reported in the news virtually every day. The consequences of being associated with such an issue can be severe.

The response from the business community has been a dramatic rise in non-financial auditing activity throughout the supply-chain. These audits relate to quality (ISO 9000series), safety (HACCP compliance etc.), environment (ISO14000 series) and social /sustainability issues (AA1000).

To comply with the new standards, processes must be in place to ensure product quality and safety on a day-to-day basis. Quality, safety and environmental performance have generally improved where these audit procedures have been successfully implemented, but some products still fail. The audited processes inevitably break-down occasionally.

The aftermath of these incidents is extremely damaging for major businesses and particularly brand owners. Frequently the faulty process occurred not within the organizational boundary of the brand-owner, but further back along the supply-chain. The problem may be “all the way back” in primary production, but the media reports will always speak to the consumer in terms of the brands they know - and trust.

The brand-owners response must be swift and authoritative. Explaining that “it wasn’t us “will not suffice. Showing that all suppliers were audited does not fix the problem. Only by discovering which businesses were involved in supplying specific batches of identifiable product throughout the supply-chain can an effective response be mounted.

String makes a process that used to take days, weeks and even months of telephone calls and paper-chasing, instantaneous and paperless.