SLCP validation to consolidate audit and eliminate redundancy

Why does each brand have its own set of audit requirements, and each time will bring the supplier back to the original state? Why is the level of transparency required by the brand so inconsistent? Who does audit really serve? Who has the time and money to manage this whole thing?

01 Integrated audit

These problems have been solved in a team of a law firm in New York. The team members include Zaki Salemi, Vice President of Strategy, Sustainability and Innovation of Crescent Bahuman; Jason Judd, Executive Director of the ILR Global Labour Institute, Cornell University; And Andre Raghu, CEO of HAP International, a supply chain due diligence platform.

Since the Nike scandal made sweatshops (at that time, Nike was regarded as a typical irresponsible enterprise and often criticized by anti-sweatshops) a household word 20 years ago, the situation of audit and certification has certainly improved, but the audit efficiency still has a long way to go. This is particularly urgent because of consumers' attention to the conditions of workers, but the lack of industry standards or regulations makes the prospect of achieving perfection dim.

The non-transparent audit and certification allow too many people to dictate and have little sense of responsibility. In the accusation, brands and retailers appeal to governments to implement labor laws. The government accuses employers, which in turn accuses workers and brands, and then brands accuse retailers, investors and even customers.

Salemi of Crescent Bahuman said that if the employees of a factory were "trained and guided" by the boss and told the auditors what they wanted to hear, how accurate the audit would be. He pointed out that "few companies have zero tolerance for such behavior", which is a difficult process for honest companies. In Tesco's lawsuit, the "illegal" condition caused a worker to cut his arm accidentally while moving the undulating machine while preparing for the planned audit.

02 Eliminate redundancy

One of the biggest complaints of suppliers is that they must conduct a major audit of all the stringent requirements of one brand, and then conduct another audit of another brand, and develop their own standards, or worse, the same standards. Sometimes, in fact, the same employee of the audit company audits the supplier on behalf of another brand every week.

Crescent Bahuman, a vertical factory located in Pakistan, produces 12 million pairs of jeans every year. The factory spends 21% of its working time on audit, and the cost of 22 to 26 audits per year is close to 75000 to 100000 dollars. "This only involves four to five customers. Imagine if you have twice the number of customers and twice the output."

03SLCP verification

In order to simplify and reduce the redundancy in the audit process, all parties have made efforts to share information through the formation of alliances. Some brands and retailers will cooperate with friendly competitors and share audit reports instead of starting from the same supplier. Or, they may give a "pass" to the supplier who was recently audited by the retailer they know.

Judd suggested that the industry study the Social and Labor Integration Plan (SLCP) in depth as a way to integrate audit and eliminate redundancy. The plan aims to eliminate audit fatigue, improve transparency, release and redeploy resources by sharing comparable and proven high-quality data.