Protecting the people in your supply chain

With great power comes great responsibility is a mantra that all large companies should live by.

When we peel back the layers of our enterprise businesses to reveal how our operations impact people’s health, wealth and happiness, that mantra becomes ever more relevant and crucial. In this article, we look at the estimated 450 million people employed in supply chain-related jobs1 and how their protection is critical to our business success. Without a knowable, transparent supply chain, we cannot be certain that the people working in manufacturing and transport operations are treated fairly.

There are an estimated 450 million people employed in supply chain-related jobs1

Protecting human rights in the supply chain is not only an essential and ethical task but one that also helps us achieve the G element of ESG. The ‘G’ describes the governance of both our business practices and those we choose to hire. As such, we cannot separate the way supply chain vendors are hired and managed from the moral fabric of our companies.

How technology can promote and protect human rights

The suppy network

For enterprise-scale companies, supply chains are so multifaceted and complex that it is difficult to consider a supply chain as a linear activity. Instead, a ‘supply network’ more accurately describes the interconnected nature of raw materials, manufacturing, transport and retail in achieving the final product – and the many transactions along the way. When we think of operations as interconnected, we start to see how ethical business practices have an impact far beyond the business HQ.

Enterprise companies with an advanced tech uptake are well-positioned to preserve the well-being of everyone in the supply network.

Enterprise companies with an advanced tech uptake are well-positioned to preserve the well-being of everyone in this supply network. By applying data and tools to make the supply network knowable and measurable, they can address human rights breaches before they become problematic or even life-threatening.

How technology can promote and protect human rights

The technologies adopted in manufacturing and distribution to build efficiencies can also be co-adopted to monitor human rights. For example, an emerging feature of blockchain is its ability to monitor the flow of money and allow visibility along the entire chain of transactions. That means each purchaser in the chain is traceable and can be held accountable for the rigour of the business at the end of the chain. This technology is so powerful it is estimated that 70% of global markets will have some dependence on the system by 2025.2

Manufacturing

Manufacturers have much to gain from the technology applied to promote human rights. Supply chain management software, IoT and AI technologies can monitor the performance and safety of heavy-duty machines. Alerting managers to maintenance issues allows them to be addressed before any machine becomes a potential risk of injury for workers.

IoT technologies that measure heat, CO? levels and occupancy of warehouses can also be used to promote the good health of workers and ensure a comfortable, heat-controlled environment.

Distribution

Once the stock has left the warehouse, human rights monitoring focuses on the distribution methods. Adding IoT sensors and powering with the low latency features of 5G allows for gaps or ‘black holes’ in the supply chain to become instantly knowable and measurable.

This method of stock monitoring lays bare the distributor's operating model. For example, if stock is expected in one factory but quickly moves to another, purchasers can question if this is in accordance with contractual terms.

The protective role of cyber security

For tech-advanced companies, the supply chain is more than just a physical process of moving objects from A to B. The digital supply chain describes how APIs, global data and network connections are used to share information from end-to-end of the production process. As such, these connections present a cyber security risk to vendors and suppliers if cyber-protection protocols are not followed.

Failure to apply cyber security impacts human rights by putting personal data at risk from human traffickers or hackers selling data and stealing identities.

To protect these interconnected networks, companies must conduct vulnerability assessments on both corporate information systems and network infrastructure. From there, customer and vendor data must be protected with tested methodologies such as penetration testing, threat discovery and automated cloud analysis.

It is not enough to assume that all suppliers along the chain are following the same steps or are even aware of the risks, so cyber security measures must be rigorous if human rights are to be protected.

Tech for good

Incorporating human rights into ESG data practices makes companies resilient to the risk of being inconsistent with the core business values. Using technology to protect the digital rights of people in the supply chain and monitor that their employers conduct ethical practices is how we’ll protect workers across the global supply network.

Talk to us about building your IoT and cyber security capabilities.

#sustainability #supplychain #ESG

References:

1. University of New South Wales, 2018, More than money: blockchain and its applications for human rights protections
2. Human Rights Watch, 2016, Human Rights in Supply Chains