Improving Our Practices

It is common for changes to be made on orders even after production has begun. Many factories build in enough time and flexibility to manage these changes without unfairly burdening workers. Unfortunately, some cannot, which may lead to violations of our Code of Vendor Conduct.

In 2005, we began exploring how we could better address this issue. Through our membership in the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), we started working with Women Working Worldwide (WWW), a non-governmental organization, to better understand how our purchasing practices can impact working conditions and how we can improve. WWW met with our employees, factory management and workers to understand our planning and production process and its impact on factories. 

WWW's preliminary report, completed in 2006, showed that we face many of the same challenges as others in our industry. It identified what we do well, and what we can do better. The report also demonstrated how managing the production process differently in key areas could help reduce quality problems and cost, as well as some of the adverse impacts on workers.

Among the key findings:

•	Inefficient purchasing practices clearly impact labor standards at the factory level.
•	Some delays and changes unnecessarily complicate the production process.
•	Poor production planning by factory management can also negatively impact working conditions.

Learn more (PDF) about the key findings from WWW's report.