It’s not enough to execute business in a developing country from a purely financial concern. It is true that customers demand more for their every penny investment, but they also expect all purchased products to be manufactured ethically.
Some reputed names in business such as Nike, Monsoon, and Gap have had their reputations severely damaged when it comes to accusations about the use of child labor and some other unethical means. In particular, Monsoon found the revelations damaging as the company is known to have ethical policy on the main street in the United Kingdom and has worked really very hard in order to make sure that its supply chain doesn’t have problems like these.
Other retailers have felt embarrassed by the working and living conditions in which their subcontracted workforce works. There are many stories of meagre wages, combined with accommodation & hygiene facilities that are not good and worse in some cases of workers beaten or tied to their work stations can damage the reputation of the brands.
Other part of this problem is that in the developing nation, there is a constant pressure on companies to reduce the cost to remain competitive in the market, and it leads the production managers and owners of factory to cut their bumps in order to try and maintain their business. It’s difficult for an outsourcing company to conduct a stringent investigation of these organizations due to their own business in another country and other cultures and put it in different language.
The Quality Control Audit is the first step in preventing and resolving such problems in the supply chain for the company which is looking to enter China or India or Bangladesh or Pakistan, etc. to try to find out the ethics of a potential partner and get some written guarantee in this sense. It’s usually better to work with the local social compliance auditing firm, best with the administration, and Western inspectors to find out the current status of the game before proceeding.
This partner should employ a reputed SA8000 inspection team; The SA8000 is a global standard for social compliance which is provided by Social Accountability International. They provide a full auditing report for:
● Assess the full level of compliance of each device they visit
● Identify and address all concerning areas and non-compliance with any contractual obligations that relate to outsourcing
● Training plan for plant and factory management in order to ensure that they can manage and implement a correction plan
● Follow-up plan, including the details of any additional auditing, regular communications reports and progress reports so as to ensure that remedial actions are actually in progress
● Future audits are not enough to make an audit once. Different changes can be made and then discarded for a certain time as the factory is attempting to lower corners or save additional expenses.
Wrapping Up:
By using the right auditing team, you can protect your business from potentially harmful disclosures and your brand can not be associated with the worst practices that harm the environment and workers. Owing to the various benefits of social auditing, more and more companies are opting this factory audit service to save their brand reputation. Hope you like reading the blog. If you have suggestions, feel free to write in the comment box.
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