To ensure our supply chain meets all the criteria we set for ourselves, we regularly carry out audits of suppliers.
The scope of our audit generally includes a capability assessment, a review of the management systems a supplier has in place to control its operations, an understanding of how it assures the quality of its products and services, and also seeks to match up our own ethical and procurement policies with our suppliers’ own working practices. This includes their own labour, environmental and business ethics practices and those of other suppliers in their supply chain.
The suppliers' responses to our self-assessment questionnaire form the basis of any audit and provides the data we need to explore their policies, procedures and practices.
Before we visit a supplier to carry out a full audit, we will have already gained first-hand knowledge of a supplier’s working practices, an understanding of the supplier base, its geographical distribution and the type of products and services procured.
Ethical audits form the final day of a three- to four-day audit that also covers development and manufacture.
The most common finding so far is the lack of formal policies and procedures suppliers have to manage labour and environmental practices in their extended supply chain. Creating awareness and capability throughout the supply chain is therefore a key objective of not only O2 but the ICT industry as a whole.
We are adopting the tools and protocols being developed in association with GeSI and the EICC Implementation Group, the two key bodies leading the industry in the ethical management of supply-chain social and environmental issues.
