We often say at FRDM that you can’t fix what you can’t find. This means that the first step towards complying with any legislation is to know what you are buying, and who you are buying it from. While this seems simple, our complicated global supply chain has made it opaque.

For example, you may think that your organization is above board when purchasing ethically sourced T-shirts for merchandizing. But Xinjiang cotton accounts for 85% of China’s cotton production, which accounts for 20% of the world’s supply. Even if you import from other countries in East Asia, there’s still a substantial chance that the raw cotton came from forced Xinjiang production.

Using proprietary first-party data and an innovative product genome, FRDM can analyze your spend data to provide a predictive bill of materials, including upstream commercial connections to your business. With more spend data, like purchase level details, the deeper our analysis can go, telling you where your supply chain may risk being complicit with forced labor. Additionally, FRDM’s Xinjiang module lets you effortlessly see which of your suppliers are based in the contentious region.
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You can also use FRDM’s trading partners module to trace second and third-tier suppliers (or beyond) to determine connections to Xinjiang. For example, you may believe that your solar panels are coming from Malaysia, but the polysilicon used to create the panel might have originated in China, exposing you to unknown risks. Until you know more about your suppliers and subsuppliers, you won’t be able to address these concerns.