Supply chain headlines
- Two cases of child labour found in Shein supply chain. The online fashion retailer also discovered factories in its supply chain failing to pay minimum wage last year, writes The Guardian.
- McKinsey claims retailers can cut Scope 3 by 15% by 2030. The consulting firm’s latest report, Retailers’ Climate Road Map: Charting Paths to Decarbonized Value Chains, says that embracing existing and new technologies is the key to reducing Scope 3 emissions.
- 3,500+ Next employees win six-year legal battle over equal pay. An employment tribunal has ruled that the fashion retailers’ store staff, who consist of more than 80% women, should not have been paid less than its warehouse workers. The total back-pay owed to claimants could amount to more than £30m, explains Retail Gazette.
3 ways to improve warehouse safety
1. Measure it. As the saying goes, you can’t improve what you don’t measure – and there are plenty of warehouse safety KPIs to help you do just that. As cynical as it sounds, tracking safety through a commercial lens with metrics like Time Lost Due to Injury will help senior management understand the importance of investing in safety.
2. Start with forklifts. They cause 85 fatal accidents and 34,900 serious injuries every year in the United States alone – making forklifts one of the most dangerous objects in your warehouse. Ensure that anyone using a forklift is trained, and everyone working around them is kept aware and alert to the risks.
3. Communicate. Warehouse safety isn’t about making the team watch a training video once a year – it’s about keeping safety front of mind every day. Include specific, useful safety reminders in every staff meeting – and share the safety metrics you report to management with everyone else.
Establishing a sustainable supply chain – meet Samantha Jones
We recently spoke to Samantha Jones, CEO and Founder of Little Yellow Bird – an NZ-based branded uniform company – about the challenges of building a sustainable fashion brand during an era of unstable supply chains and global disruptions. Here’s what she had to say.
In your own words, what is Little Yellow Bird?
“We’re a branded uniform company, unique in that we manufacture all our own products. We don’t just buy stock items and get them branded locally; we have full traceability back to the cotton farms we use. It’s been quite a journey – nine years now. “
How did you approach the challenge of creating a sustainable brand?
“We took a zero-waste approach to running the business. We exclusively use organic cotton [and] fair-trade certified factories. We’re the first in New Zealand to do textile recycling – we take back all our products for free at the end of life. We like to do a bit of advocacy as well. My main goal has been to prove that you can create a business that is good for people and the planet.”
What inspired you to launch LYB?
“It started off as a university project. I come from a supply chain background; I was a military officer in logistics for seven years before I started the business. I’d seen the social working conditions in which many of our clothes were made, and I wanted to do something about it. I considered the labour side of things to be a major issue. But the more I learned about it, the more I understood that the environmental side was interlinked.”
What challenges have you faced since launching Little Yellow Bird?
“We’ve struggled to achieve any growth in the last few years, so we’ve really been focussed on optimising. We’ve homed in on the best ways to do each task. I think we’ve [now] got enough inbuilt capacity that we could be two or three times the size without growing our infrastructure or team too much, so that’s quite exciting.”
New Zealand’s response to the pandemic was quite severe. How did you survive the challenges of lockdowns and supply chain disruptions?
“To survive COVID, we flipped from a predominantly B2B brand to being more B2C-focussed. That was pivotal; it saved our business. All those big businesses weren’t buying [from us anymore]. At the time, none of our systems really made any sense to do that. We were used to sending out individual packages, a few a day. Now that we’ve been through that process of sending out bulk amounts daily we have efficiencies in shipping and other areas.”
Do you have any sources for business advice you can recommend for our readers?
“I recently read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, the Founder of Nike. It’s his whole story and it’s super interesting. But my advice is to ask someone who inspires you for a coffee – and then ask them for an intro to somebody else to have a coffee with.”
Before we go, is there any advice you’d give your younger self?
“I think back to those early days having unhealthy habits, working until midnight most nights or responding to factory messages at 2am. I really prioritise wellbeing these days and I wish I’d found that balance earlier on.”
On the lighter side…
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