Supply-chain visibility has always been important, but it is even more needed now, says Karyl Fowler, chief growth officer at Tradeverifyd.

There's a myriad of new trade regulations, and supply chain leaders need to think about visibility and compliance because of them, Fowler says. Such things as U.S. and Canadian legislation designed to prevent forced labor and the EU’s deforestation and battery laws have one thing in common: There is a higher burden than ever to show the provenance of one’s supply chain. Manufacturers and distributors may view such laws as burdensome, but Fowler says they aren’t going away.

“Regulators are demanding more and more granular visibility into your supply chain operations,” she says. “The trouble is, that's not something we've had our business models built up around, historically. So it's tough to have sufficient confidence in the data that you do have, especially beyond that tier one in order to satisfy many of these regulations.”

Fowler says a recent report found 95% of companies are confident about their tier-one visibility. “But we all know that the risk often doesn't rear its head until tier two or three, and only just over 45% of companies have any sense of confidence around their tier two.”

Since visibility has been of concern for decades, how can companies not be prepared for regulators when they come calling? They generally are data-ready until they get deeper in the supply chain, Fowler says. Beyond the first couple of tiers, opacity and “fuzziness” increases.

The good news is that visibility is now either being built in and embedded from the beginning, or retooled to be supported or integrated throughout the supply chain, she says. “We're not quite there yet because again, business models and regulation have not required that level of depth and granularity for that long.”