Managing and Monitoring
Understanding the supply chain
Along with our global sustainability division, several other departments, procedures and policies play a role in making sure our operations are safe, ethical, and sustainable. Our production and sourcing divisions deepen our understanding of the supply chain through regular meetings with the sustainability division. These teams work closely with our suppliers to improve their sustainability performance.
Managing our supply chain
Through our Supply Chain Management Program, we seek to maintain and improve standards throughout our supply chain, in all areas where our business has both direct and indirect influence.
STEP1：Commitment
Develop global policy and guidelines / Internal and external communication regarding policies (including education and training)
STEP2：Monitoring and Risk Management
Assessing human rights risks in the business and supply chain / Audit and corrective action to warrant safe and ethical workplace standards
STEP3：Training and Capacity Building
Supplier training / Sharing best practices / Develop global policy and guidelines / Internal and external communication regarding policies (including education)
STEP4：Reporting and Transparency
Disclosure in reports and websites / Disclosure based on Modern Slavery Act / Utilisation of industry standard tools and disclosure of factory list
Monitoring our supply chain
We continuously monitor the social and environmental sustainability performance of our supply chain partners against ASICS standards. We work closely with factories, labor unions, and industry groups to make improvements. We focus on two topics:
Training and capacity building
Reporting and transparency
Assessments & audits
Through various assessments and audits, we ensure we are aware of risks in the supply chain, we can monitor and manage them, and report on our approaches and results.
Country risk assessments
We select countries and regions where our products can be manufactured, based on the analysis of human rights risks and risks related to sectors and regions.
Supplier audits
We partner only with suppliers who meet our standards and share our commitment to human rights and the environment. We assess potential suppliers to ensure their sustainability performance is in line with ASICS’ requirements.
Internal audits
These involve on-site inspections, document verification, and employee interviews, carried out by ASICS staff at supplier’s sites.
Commissioned audits
Specialized, accredited third-party monitors who are well-versed in local laws, regulations, culture and languages carry out audits. To ensure the process is consistent and comparable, we use use the SMETA 4 Pillar audit tool (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit).
Partner audits
ILO Better Work has conducted our partner audits and improvement plan follow-ups since 2014. Better Work conducts an assessment once a year. Based on the findings, factories develop and implement an improvement plan.
Our assessments and audits use 17 criteria to evaluate our Tier 1 suppliers’ sustainability performance. We award each supplier an overall rating from A to E, based on its performance. Audit criteria covering forced labor, child labor, abuse and harassment, wages, discrimination and hours of work are defined as zero tolerance criteria. Non-compliance within these areas is taken very seriously and can result in immediate business termination. Environmental criteria include permissions from local government, compliance, implementation of impact-lowering programs, and calculation of various contributors, such as wastewater, emissions and energy consumption.
We periodically review the level of compliance of our contracted suppliers with our sustainability standards. Depending on the performance level of the relevant facilities, assessment cycles range from annual (C level) to every other year (B and A rating).
Find more details on the recent results of our sustainability efforts in our latest sustainability report.
Non-compliance issues
When our assessments identify non-compliance issues, we categorize them as major or minor, based on the severity of the violation and the level of risk to workers. Follow-up actions can include terminating the business relationship in the case of serious and persistent violations, reviews of future orders, third-party investigations, and formal warnings.
When minor non-compliances are identified, we begin a remediation period of three months. During this time, the supplier is expected to take corrective measures. When necessary, ASICS staff or partners support the remediation process, for example by providing training and resources.
Training and capacity building
We provide regular trainings to help our Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers become resilient and sustainable. In the training, suppliers can gain the knowledge and understanding necessary to implement new standards, legal requirements, and structured management systems. They also become more aware of industry best practice. We will continue capacity building sessions for our suppliers in our key sourcing countries, such as Vietnam and Indonesia.
Reporting and transparency
Continuously increasing transparency helps us understand the risks in our supply chain and helps suppliers build better working environments and increase productivity. The main platform we use to provide supply chain transparency is SAC’s Higg Index suite of tools. The connected modules enable full transparency of our activities throug- hout our value chain, from manufacturing to retail and beyond.