As part of our recently launched sustainability strategy, we’re putting a focus on our products, through value chain management. Which means our team are busy working with a third-party risk management software to get complete supply chain visibility.

Being able to see who and what is involved in the making of our products allows us to have full sight of a range of factors that contribute to our strategy, with the goal of having all our suppliers mapped and engaged by 2035.

What is Value Chain Management?

Value chain management is being able to have complete visibility over everything and everyone in our supply chain, from manufacturing to end destination. It’s important for us to define our supply chain to make sure it aligns with our social and environmental values. Using our chosen software, we’ll be able to track our supply chain from end-to-end, gaining visibility not just from our immediate suppliers but also their suppliers.

Ensuring our suppliers adhere to legislation like modern slavery or environmental compliance to control and prevent negative impacts, means that we’re doing our due diligence through both the purchasing and selling process as well as disposal and delivery. Subsequently giving you clarity on where your print comes from.

What is Value Chain Risk Management?

Mapping our supply chain gives us clarity not only on our environmental and social impact but also allows us to plan for the future, helping us manage any potential risks. As you’re probably aware, the last few months haven’t been the easiest for print, from material shortages to rising bills, businesses have needed to become more adaptable and be able to plan ahead. Having a clear view of our supply chain will help us to become even more resilient, giving you peace of mind that we’re a trade printer that you can rely on. Just some of the benefits of this level of risk management include;

•    Stronger supply chain
•    Increased agility and ability to respond to unexpected events
•    More cost-efficient stock control
•    Reduced risk of supply issues
•    Improved ESG performance, confidence, and reporting rigor
•    Overall, increased ability to identify, mitigate and minimize risks relating to your supply chain

What We Do

With our chosen software by our side, we’ll be able to work with our suppliers to obtain the information we need from them to help map our supply chain. Examples of data we plan to capture and therefore trace include;
•    Environmental performance
•    Corporate Social Responsibility, (including health & safety, labour standards and modern slavery, business ethics and governance)
•    Supply Chain information
•    Quality assurance and performance
•    Information on verified programmes, certificates, policies and procedures

We also plan to work closely with our smaller suppliers! Through open communications, sharing our resources and delivering training and best practices, we’ll be able to help them improve, making our relationship one that focuses on collaboration for the better of our customers.

What This Means for You

As a Route 1 Print customer, you can rely on us to have what you need. With our strong supply chain, you’ll be able to make the most of our well-stocked warehouse, competitive prices, continued quality and focus on sustainability. You can also be confident that we have everything in place to adapt to any changes or events further down the line.

At Route 1 Print, we’re all about keeping you in the loop because our factory is your factory. We want to consistently communicate our sustainability and supply chain progress to you so you’re confident we’re doing everything we can to make you and your customer’s print buying experience as environmentally and socially friendly as possible.

Keep up to date with the latest from our sustainability strategy online! Or, why not read our latest blog Our Sustainability Strategy: What is The Achilles Carbon Reduce Scheme to discover more about Achilles. Our partner organisation who provides us with guidance, tools and access to software that can be used to translate our greenhouse gas data into a verified Carbon Footprint.