The effort needed for achieving the goal of achieving supply chain transparency can be daunting, but focusing on the following three enablers can significantly improve the chances of success:
- Mapping the Suppliers
Geo-Mapping of the locations of the suppliers is very important for achieving supply chain sustainability because it allows the stakeholders to visualize the locations for the different steps of the supply chain and helps in tracing and tracking the causes of operational issues, identifying the risks, cutting costs and enabling visibility of the chain. The locations can include residential locations in addition to the industrial locations because the fashion industry has a significant amount of dependency on cottage industry, home base workers, mall businesses and wet processors
2. Training , Certifications and Support
Brands have a corporate social responsibility not only towards their customers and general public, but also towards their suppliers. It is responsibility of the big brands to ensure that their suppliers have the requisite knowledge, training and experience needed for ensuring supply chain transparency. According to Ayesha, trainings, short courses, orientation sessions, online help and certifications can help the small and medium sized suppliers coming from diverse and disparate backgrounds to align with the intended supply chain transparency goals and targets.
3. Traceability and Verification
Traceability and verification of the processes at each step is one of the most important factors that can make or break the transparency efforts. Real time operational data from the suppliers can help in tracking the performance at each step, pinpointing the processes cause undesirable outcomes and focusing on the processes that improve the overall efficiency