BSI - SCAN

The collaboration between the SCAN Association and OriginTrail focused on transforming supplier compliance with OriginTrail's Decentralized Knowledge Graph (DKG)-powered trusted AI. Since 2019, BSI has collaborated with OriginTrail to enhance the Supplier Compliance Audit Network (SCAN) program, aiming to reduce audit redundancy, enhance efficiency, and foster a more sustainable supply chain by leveraging blockchain technology. This partnership has successfully mitigated fraudulent activities by securing audit reports as verifiable knowledge assets, ensuring only authorized access to these trusted records. The collaboration not only safeguards the integrity of supply chain audits but also opens up new opportunities for predictive analytics and proactive supply chain management by connecting disparate data points. With the potential for broader adoption and government partnerships, the initiative promises improved supply chain transparency, security, and resilience. Showcasing a significant stride towards a more interconnected and trusted global supply chain ecosystem.

The Supplier Compliance Audit Network (SCAN) is an association of North American retailers exercising $1.5 trillion annual purchasing power. SCAN has 55 members including many of the largest retailers in the world which collectively account for 40% of all North American imports.

SCAN exists to coordinate a standardized approach and audit criteria for importer compliance with US Dept of Homeland Security CTPAT rules.

CTPAT (Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) objectives:

• Verify the authenticity of US imports

• Prevent the introduction of undeclared cargo

• Strengthen international supply chains

• Improve US border security

To accomplish this, SCAN conducts audits on factories outside the United States to ensure they meet minimum security requirements. This includes 20,000 factories in 74 countries. Annually SCAN conducts 14,000 factory audits in partnership with 850 authorized auditing firms.

In 2020, SCAN worked closely with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to develop a solution to improve the verification of factory audits and the accessibility of audit information for SCAN members. This was done in response to an open call by US DHS. BSI is partnered with OriginTrail to integrate knowledge graph structured record-keeping and real time verification of credentials via blockchain into the SCAN factory audit verification process. All of the audits are secured utilizing the Origintrail Decentralized Network and comply with SCAN’s rigorous data privacy requirements. With flexible data permissions, the solution enables SCAN to share data with government agencies.

How does it work?

1. Auditors score factories according to standardized security criteria

2. Audit results stored in OriginTrail knowledge graph

3. Converted to QR codes for customs agents to easily access

This is a permissioned solution, only parties approved by SCAN can access this information, particularly US Dept of Homeland Security + US Customs.

What problems does the OriginTrail SCAN factory audit implementation solve?

• Forged factory audit certifications

• Inaccessible factory audit histories

• Inability to quickly verify auditor credentials

OriginTrail’s solution provides SCAN members with:

• Real time verification and display of up-to-date factory audit reports

• Access to audit report history, previous corrective actions, and risk assessment metrics in a modern user interface

• The ability to export audit data in a standardized format

SCAN OriginTrail Implementation Phase 2 & 3:

• Expand scope to include verification of auditor training certifications

• Integrate with authorized customs agencies around the world

Dan Purtell, British Standards Institution Head of Innovation and 30 year supply chain security professional & DHS advisor said:

“We’re very pleased with the way it turned out. It’s been a very good strategic partnership with OriginTrail”

“It creates value. It creates instant credentialing and trust mechanisms for clients; but, I think, more importantly nobody else is doing this and it’s really going to cause massive growth within this association which is one of their overall objectives.”

“We’ve got some very exciting things that we’re working on, with OriginTrail, in these respective areas that really I think are very promising, they’re desperately needed and they’re going to further bring trust to the supply chain.” source

British Standards Institution Releases White Paper on Use of OriginTrail Decentralised NetworkMedium

Here's a word by Ken McElroy, Global Manager, Trade Risk & Export Compliance at Home Depot