Goals and progress
Supply chain | Helping factories move forward
We know from experience that what gets monitored gets managed — which is why monitoring is a core component of our strategy to improve factory working conditions.
In monitoring garment factories around the world, our Social Responsibility Specialists (SRSs) are the crucial link between written standards and real change. Once they’ve done the diligent work of approving a garment factory, they make both announced and unannounced visits on a regular basis to assess factory performance against the standards outlined in our Code of Vendor Conduct (COVC).
When we find problems, we work with factory management to resolve them as quickly as possible. We’ll continue working with a factory as long as we believe it’s committed to making improvements. If a factory has very serious or repeated violations of our code and lacks the intent or ability to resolve them, we’ll terminate the relationship. However, we try to avoid this situation due to the impact it can have on a factory’s workers.
In 2008, we began tailoring the frequency of monitoring visits to factories based on their unique needs. For example, a factory that’s not performing well may require more visits than a factory that is. This approach allows us to better focus on salient issues and invest time in building a factory’s capacity to address the causes of poor working conditions. For example, we are now working to develop human resource management systems and a culture of accountability at factories. Read more about our capacity building efforts.
