Taking the complexity out of compliance

While the types of risks varied, the most notified included:

Although most brands and retailers are conscious of the importance of bringing safe and compliant products to the market, defining the applicable scope across numerous product categories requires expertise. On top of this, gathering all the necessary documentation from various supply chain stakeholders can be overwhelmingly time-consuming. This administrative burden also attracts its own risks and the need for technical review, as nearly one document in every three evaluated by our experts is found to be non-compliant. In many instances, it isn’t easy to handle this process internally because of issues such as:

• Complexity with keeping records up to date
• Multiplicity of suppliers with different maturity and contacts (to be competitive and ensure effective pricing, brands tend to diversify)
• Numerous documents requiring the right expertise, including knowing the applicable regulations to ask for the appropriate documents
• No dedicated team: Considered a dull, administrative task by brand engineers but cannot be completed by someone without technical knowledge
• Process too slow vs. rotation of collections too fast
• Significant time required
• No proper interface to coordinate document collection and review