Your brand is only as reliable and trustworthy as the quality of products you put out into the market.
Without a robust product compliance program in place, the integrity of your brand is bound to be compromised sooner or later.
Our complimentary eBook ‘How to Build Systems to Ensure Product Compliance in Large Supply Chains’ lays the foundation for building a robust compliance program to help you avoid costly mishaps and begin overcoming compliance issues today.
Effectively managing growing supply chain complexities is something that most purchasing managers/importers deal with on a day to day basis.
As your brand grows compliance issues you never knew were there (nor were prepared for) may rear their ugly head, and it’s up to you to begin pinpointing issues and plugging the holes your profits will fall through, before the consumers of today tear them open even wider.
Ensuring product compliance starts and ends with one thing:
A robust compliance program.
Product Compliance is Key To Your Success
Effectively managing growing supply chain complexities is something that most purchasing managers/importers deal with on a day to day basis.
As your brand grows compliance issues you never knew were there (nor were prepared for) may rear their ugly head, and it’s up to you to begin pinpointing issues and plugging the holes your profits will fall through, before the consumers of today tear them open even wider.
Ensuring product compliance starts and ends with one thing:
A robust compliance program.
Building a compliance program
A working compliance program addresses the rules, standards, regulations and requirements that your company or brand sets for its suppliers. These standards will create the accountability within the supply chain that consumers today are looking for. At this stage if you are pondering on the necessity and importance of compliance, take a look at this: In 2007, Mattel had to recall 1.5 million lead covered toys due to negligence. The company ended up having to pay a $12.3 million settlement with another $2.3 million in civil penalties for violating a lead paint ban.“Can your company afford a mistake like this?”
‘How to Build Systems to Ensure Product Compliance in Large Supply Chains’
- Why compliance is necessary now more than ever
- How to turn your compliance challenges into opportunities for growth
- The specific audits that are needed for compliance in your supply chain
- How to go about creating a compliance culture for your brand
with efficient quality procedures. They are also up to date with the latest developments in the industry along with the best practices to follow. As a result, you have all the expertise and 
2. Strategic partnerships
3. Inventory management tactics
Managing inventory is all about balance. Making sure that you don’t have too much inventory thus face the risk of increased storage costs and a longer time to market having an effect on your return. You also need to make sure you don’t have too little inventory forcing people to shop elsewhere for a similar product. Both sides of the equation can have detrimental effects for your brand. Here we look at two inventory management tactics that are applied by two of the biggest global retailers:
4. Quality Control
they need products. You may find yourself at a loss with a delivery delay. Contingency plans are essential to ensuring your product gets to market. A 
1.Risk Management – Global brands take every procedure into account when understanding possible areas of risk. From sourcing to logistics to inventory management, each of these areas affects one another. If there is a problem with sourcing, it inadvertently affects the logistics of the entire operation. Therefore a brand such as Amazon needs to have a Risk Mitigation strategy that spans the entire operation.
should be used. Automating this processes allows for transparency and an up to date inventory procedure.
Miller is seen as instrumental in paving the way with greening the supply chain from using a green design for their products, to ensuring they use less harmful chemicals within the products. The only way they were able to do this was through gaining supplier buy-in. They asked their suppliers to begin complying with the zero-waste policies within their procedures.
effectively manage their supply chains. Regionally there is the thought that this may be too expensive to apply. When it comes to technology, it is too easy to jump to the first software you find. It is essential to understand what you need technology to do for you, so that you may select the type of technology that is best suited to your needs. By doing this, you are ensuring that this is not overly costly for you and maximizes its efficiency for you.
If we take a look at Targets mistake of launching the toddler sized Barbie SUV country-wide, the problem they faced was that their distribution centers were receiving inventory faster than they were distributing it to stores across the country. This meant that there were Target stores that had empty shelves with none of the promised items in store. They attributed this to inconsistencies between actual inventory and the computer records. A mistake like this will have cost millions in revenue loss, but also detrimental to both Target and Barbie. As a supply chain manager, it is up to you to ensure you suppliers and distribution centers operate on the same system to mitigate risks like this occurring.
A team that is led by someone who has a strong sense of leadership can drive the team towards the finish line in a successful manner and ensure that they are achieving the supply chain goals. A strong leader needs to be able to ensure that everyone is on track to achieving the goals as set out. They need to build confidence within the team.
The leader is also responsible for managing all relationships and removing any issues that may hinder the effective functioning of the team. Lastly, the team needs to see you in the trenches, alongside them, digging deep. This creates a sense of solidarity and unity with your team.
“Which business leaders do you look up to? Let me know in the comments below…”
Regular, daily reports are important for tracking team progress. The data collected and presented in your weekly meetings should align with your quality control plan and should make recommendations and adjustments where necessary. This will help you and your team understand what goals are on track to being achieved, what problems may need to be addressed and what things need a more strategic focus.
The more accurate and concise your reporting is, the more focused your quality team can be in fixing potential problems and even avoiding potential risks. If your supply chain key performance indicators are not aligned with all departments of your 
Creating a sense of trust and motivation within your team may sound too emotive for you, but everyone has a desire to be motivated. This creates a sense of ownership and a deeper sense of responsibility and control over their work.
Improved team trust leads to an energized team, an energized team can lead to procedural innovation within your 
There is evidence that supply chains are often managed functionally with metrics, systems, and behaviors geared to managing the performance of a specific area. Whilst detailed functional knowledge and understanding are essential to delivering a quality product, a narrow view can lead to a potential misalignment of the different elements of the chain towards the end goal. Senior management needs to ensure that decisions which are taken at the top are not sub-optimised in the operational execution. In practical terms, this means a real transformation in how measurement systems are designed and implemented to ensure that there is a full understanding of how the business interlinks. Individual incentives and success need to be aligned for the achievement of overarching goals, not purely functional excellence.
Be clear – This may sound like an obvious basic principle, but it’s vital to make sure the ‘narrative’ of the information comes across so that it is understood easier and its relevance and context are clear. Use a brief headline, to sum up, the information being communicated and focus on the key aspects of the data as well as why it is important and how it can be used.
Retailers can protect themselves from potential supply chain interruptions or delays associated with suppliers’ human rights, labor, environmental, and governance practices by ensuring buying offices have effective compliance programs and robust management systems. Here are steps to manage risk:
Inaccurate data, existing systems infrastructure, and entrenched business practices are common barriers to the implementation of quality management systems. The importance of getting existing processes in line with 
