Importers Carry Significant Burdens to Verify Compliance
The importer’s sourcing ecosystem has many participants including tier 1 and 2 suppliers, vendors, agents; as well as, integrity, testing and audit service providers with oversight by various corporate functions. As with most successful multi-enterprise networks, the value produced can be substantial if operated effectively and efficiently, while the organization’s burden to coordinate the resulting complexity is significant. A major milestone in the global importer’s sourcing chain is when a vendor requests the pickup of goods ready for shipment. At this juncture, the importer must ensure every item on every order is compliant across key dimensions – product safety, quality and performance; supplier compliance to social, quality processes and security, and an even longer list of corporate, regulatory and social requirements and certifications all constituting each item’s ‘compliance plan’. Effectively managing the scale and quantity of the import organization’s compliance program is an ongoing challenge consuming increasing amounts of resource time and focus. Advanced software, collaboration and analysis solutions offer improved collaboration in a structured, standardized way to monitor, measure and validate that every shipped order and item complies with each of the importer’s business and regulatory compliance requirements prior to receiving authorization to enter the supply chain.
Challenges
With consumer demand driving the expectations for higher levels of product quality and safety, and the organization’s desire to control costs, improve efficiency and reduce risks; the importer’s compliance program will struggle to manage the complexity and scale as the business grows.
The typical importer’s product assortment is continuously changing in response to the marketplace, directly impacting the types of standard and ad hoc compliance requirements to monitor, measure and validate – preferably before the merchandise enters the importer’s supply chain.
Compliance programs relying on time-intensive manual processes and strained resources are under increasing pressure to ‘do more with less’ in response to market, corporate and regulatory pressures.
View Order Release Status and Details
Automated Compliance Program Operation
Clarity™ Order Release, a hosted software module and information collaboration system on the ClearTrack® Global Trade Management network platform addresses the key challenges of ensuring each order and item meets the importer’s comprehensive compliance requirements prior to granting the supplier approval to ship. The Order Release module supports the monitoring and measurement of compliance results, certificate information and business-related documentation from the global trading community while providing deep insights into supplier compliance, reducing risks and empowering the program team to meet increasing business and regulatory demands. Driven by each product item’s compliance plan requirements, an intuitive, online secure dashboard displays the status, easily revealing those items requiring focus and remediation by the supplier to ensure everything is met and stays on track. The Order Release module includes alert notifications to drive action and response and business intelligence reporting and analytics for insight and planning.
Benefits