By Adam Turteltaub

Supply chains are emerging as an increasingly complex risk area for compliance. The risk includes trade compliance, vendor management issues associated with cyber/privacy, product compliance, REACH, ROHS and California Proposition 65 , all the way into CSR and supply chain transparency controls such as conflict minerals and modern slavery requirements.  Even packaging can be a concern.

As Travis Miller, General Counsel of Assent Compliance explains in this podcast, to get a full picture of the risk it comes down to breaking down silos and creating centralization.  This prevents blind spots where supply chain and CSR/transparency issues can occur.  In addition, if data is stored in different places, it's impossible, he argues, to make strategic decisions, to incorporate requirements adequately into sourcing requirements, and to determine if product can be sold into a market or not.

For ongoing auditing and monitoring he advises focusing on three areas.  First, are the known knowns:  all the information you know you have in the company and then putting it all in one place.  The second area is your known unknowns:  information that the company knows exists but doesn't have.  Third, look at that data and make sure there are no discrepancies.

Listen in to learn more about these issues and what do if the supplier doesn’t adequately respond to your questions.

And, for an ongoing resource on the issue of supply chains, be sure to check out our Report on Supply Chain Compliance.