What is supply chain mapping?

Supply chain mapping is the process of discovering and documenting the precise source of every material, every process and every shipment involved in bringing goods to market.

It is the foundation of meaningful efforts towards supply chain transformation and transparency.

Engage your suppliers and encourage collaboration

Understand your end-to-end supplier network, deepen partnerships, increase accountability and enable agility

Identify and map all of your direct and indirect suppliers quickly and easily with an automated cascading invitation system. Provide value and build trust with your suppliers by providing an equal access view down the supply chain for all participants.

Why is supply chain mapping so important?

We live in an increasingly interconnected world. From our morning cups of coffee to the clothing we wear, our smart phones and computers to our communications and transport networks, modern life is supported by goods and services from all over the planet.

Though we may not think about it, nearly everything we consume is brought into existence through a vast matrix of global supply chains, with thousands of individuals and organizations each playing a role in supporting our way of life.

These complex networks are central to meeting consumer demand, driving economic growth and increasing value, however, because they have so many moving parts, maintaining visibility can prove a difficult feat. This lack of visibility presents an important challenge, if one link in the chain is disrupted, the entire system can come to a halt. Without visibility, it can be nearly impossible to pinpoint where the breakdown occurred and manage the disruption.

International supply chains offer greater margins, increased efficiency, but beyond the bottom line for any individual company or consumer are a number of increasingly pressing ethical, environmental and economic concerns that cannot be ignored.

Organizations must be more robust, responsive and resilient than ever before, understanding not only how their decisions impact the balance sheet, but the world at large.

We believe there is an opportunity to advance positive global change by making better and more informed decisions in supply chains. But better decisions require better understanding, visibility and transparency.

That's why we are launching the Open Supply Chain Mapping Initiative.

Introducing the new CBQ 2.0

The CBQ enables the identification of the type of component that is being provided i.e. whether it is COTS or custom. This is a key aspect of the CBQ as it supports the platform's wider risk scoring calculations/algorithms that can also form part of the solution.

The CBQ also identifies if a component's design or specification is controlled by the buyer or whether this is managed by the supplier.

Our data collection approach using the CBQ will enable buyers to identify the parts that fall into the relevant categories (custom, joint-designed, conflict mineral) to support the subsequent data analysis and risk assessment process.

The CBQ and the underlying platform have been designed to link each related CBQ submission to each other through the use of relationship markers to build the unique supply chain for a product and its components. The platform builds the product map as data is input by suppliers and displays the progress in real time.

Utilizing our own RESTful API, CBQ 2.0 is the fastest and easiest way to traverse your supply chain network!

The platform provides real time access to the current data collection position and can be accessed by any user that has been given the relevant account privileges.

The platform monitors whether a supplier has registered, accessed the CBQ and also submitted their data. All of this information is accessible on screen, via our integrated management information capability, via the openscm RESTful API and via a .CSV download.

The platform builds the supply chain in real time, so each data submission adds to the product supply chain data set and can be immediately viewed by your organization. This means that data can be shared with the supply chain risk program team on an ongoing basis.

Buyer staff have the option of sending additional platform communications to suppliers to encourage submission or remind them of a nearing submission deadline.