Serai, a digital B2B trade platform, has partnered with global manufacturer CIEL Textile to map out and trace product-level order flow through its supply chain, from raw material to finished product.
Serai’s traceability solution will enable CIEL Textile to access and unify complex supply chain information from multiple sources to gain full visibility over its value network. At the same time, the company will be able to collect and analyze key metrics to help achieve its sustainability goals.
This is the first time CIEL Textile has collaborated with a company to gain such in-depth supply chain transparency.
“CIEL Textile has always been a pioneer in striving for sustainability and innovation,” Serai CEO Vivek Ramachandran said. “Through Serai’s Traceability solution, they will be able to easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners. Having all this information in one place can help them drive operational efficiencies, manage underlying risks and eventually achieve greater transparency and trust in their extended supply chain.”
A major challenge for CIEL Textile was that it had a diverse range of systems and solutions fragmented across the group. Garment production comprised a variety of materials, including cotton, cellulosic fibers and wool in knitted and woven fabrics, which made transparency further upstream difficult. Serai’s solution was flexible to adapt to changing requirements and be integrated with CIEL Textile’s existing solutions.
“Consumers and regulators are demanding greater supply chain transparency,” said Bertrand Thevenau, chairman of the CIEL Textile Sustainability Committee. “In addition, sustainability is now recognized as a key driver of innovation across our business. It’s important to us that our supply chain is ethical and aligned with our core values. Transparency also helps us maintain long term relationships with our customers, suppliers and all stakeholders based on trust and open communication.”
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After evaluating a few technology providers, Serai was chosen based on a criteria comprising the scope of the traceability, flexibility of the solution and integration of global standards to monitor the sustainability performance of CIEL Textile’s suppliers.
“We’re moving toward a world where consumers and regulators demand greater transparency,” Ramachandran said. “This traceability solution is just a beginning. We continue to add solutions with the aim to make supply chains more sustainable, ethical and reliable.”
Serai by HSBC’s ambition is to simplify global trade, with an initial focus on the apparel industry. Through a single platform, members can access industry business solutions and exchange complex information from multiple data sources to gain visibility into their supply chain.
Each year, 38 million garments are created by CIEL Textile through its 18 production units across Mauritius, Madagascar, India and Bangladesh.