Survey on purchasing practices calls on manufacturers to rate brand partners

by The Industry We Want created 2022-10-04T16:26:28+07:00
The second cycle of TIWW purchasing practices metric is now open. The global Partnership Index™ survey opens for its second cycle from 3 - 31 October 2022, calling on manufacturers in the apparel sector to rate their brand partners’ purchasing practices.

The Partnership Index™ survey provides a consistent way to measure the impact of brands’ purchasing practices on production and creates a space for meaningful, two-way dialogue on the topic. The more data collected each cycle, the more robust the industry score and the tracking of change across the industry will be. This allows all actors to hold themselves accountable and inspire progress at large.

The Industry We Want is now encouraging manufacturers in the apparel sector to have their say. Brands, retailers and other stakeholders are invited to share the survey with manufacturers. The survey is an anonymous questionnaire that consists of 15 questions and will take 5 - 10 minutes to fill in for each brand partner. It is available in Bengali, Chinese (simplified), English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese. The information gained from the aggregated results will provide the industry with direct feedback from global suppliers on the state of purchasing practices. This will generate valuable insights that can be used to build better relationships between brands and suppliers, while also mapping out what processes are needed to improve in the sector.

The findings will be aggregated and presented at the OECD Forum, in connection to critical developments since last year's cycle. Further, the results will inform the purchasing practices metric on www.theindustrywewant.com, alongside wages and GHG emissions, and serve as a basis for a series of supplier seminars in the coming year.

Have your say and get involved today

Thank you for your collaboration!

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Results 2021: The industry needs equal, long-term partnerships

Throughout its first cycle in October 2021, the Partnership Index survey received over 500 responses from suppliers in the garment- and footwear industry. The first findings of the Index make it clear how much pressure suppliers are facing. Key findings show that brands are failing to provide suppliers with enough time, visibility, or fair financial practices and they do not seek suppliers’ ideas for product and process innovation.

The four most highly rated behaviours are communication, financial practices, the provision of visibility necessary to business operations and buyers doing their part to improve environmental performance and practices in the supply chain.

According to the responses:

  • 56% of purchasing practices from brands were considered those of a true partner

  • 28% of brand behaviour aligned with that of a collaborator

  • 17% of practices were the behaviours of a detractor.

The percentage of Detractors are subtracted from the percentage of True Partners to calculate the company’s overall BBPI score, using a range of -100 to +100. The Industry We Want’s purchasing practices metric score for 2021 is 39. Fair Wear and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) were the first Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives to publicly disclose their full reports in an effort to increase commercial transparency in the sector. The data provided through the reports supports Fair Wear and ETI in their work on purchasing practices with their respective members.

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