As we learned in our first webinar on modern supply chains, uncovering and preventing forced labour in a complex supply chain can be challenging. Companies across all sectors are under pressure to seek transparency within their multi-tier supply networks and to share more information with their customers, partners, and stakeholders. Regulatory due diligence requirements, increased investor and consumer expectations, and technological advances have all raised the bar.

Supply chain tracing is the process of identifying the source of a product’s material inputs and tracing the movement of these inputs throughout the supply chain, from its very start through to end-use. The convoluted nature of many supply networks poses challenges to traceability as, between the raw materials and end products, value chains can have many nodes. The use of middlemen, such as commodity traders, multiple companies involved at various stages of production, and the blending of materials, create additional difficulty. The complexity of supply chains varies depending on the country, on whether smallholder producers are involved, and on the sourcing approach of brands.

In this webinar, our panel of experts discusses the approaches and technologies that are currently available to help with supply chain tracing, their application in different industries, and their potential and limitations.

In this webinar, our panel of experts discusses the approaches and technologies that are currently available to help with supply chain tracing, their application in different industries, and their potential and limitations.

We learn that there are a lot of exciting possibilities on the horizon for making supply chains more transparent and accountable, but there is still a great need for good reliable information about exploitation on the ground to make these technologies work for improving supply chains.

Panelists:

Brian Ulicny, Raytheon BBN Technologies and formerly Thomson Reuters Labs
Oyla Shatova, Oritain
Nathan Williams, Minespider
Xinyi Duan (Moderator), Liberty Shared