• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » How the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act Could Forever Change the Supply Chain

How the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act Could Forever Change the Supply Chain

April 9, 2010
Kristin Muhlner, Chief Executive Officer, RollStream

In 2008, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), a wide-sweeping bill designed to improve the safety of children's products.  The legislation, implemented in stages over the last two years, lowered limits on hazardous substances such as lead and phthalates, increased funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), imposed new testing requirements on manufacturers, and established broad documentation requirements for all participants throughout the supply chain.   Spanning a wide range of products, including apparel, shoes, personal care products, accessories and jewelry, home furnishings, bedding, toys, electronics and video games, books, and school supplies, the bill is estimated to cover tens of thousands of products developed and marketed to children 12 and under.  In addition, the bill established sizeable fines for offending companies - up to $100,000 for the first incident and $15m in aggregate - including jail penalties for infractions.

Manufacturers large and small immediately created an uproar, claiming the law required unreasonable and costly testing and that it could cost the U.S. economy millions, if not billions, of dollars.  Nonetheless, new aspects of the CPSIA went in to effect as recently as February 10, with manufacturers of many of the aforementioned products now required to produce certificates of conformity stating that their products have been tested to the substance and safety standards set by the CPSC.

The Information Dilemma

Suddenly, the consumer products industry found itself faced once again with the age-old problem of product information sharing.  According to the legislation, testing certificates must accompany a product throughout the supply chain, from manufacturer to distributor to retailer to reseller to consumer.  This is no small feat, considering that packaging may be stripped at a distribution center and that products may be recombined many times before sale.  To combat these issues, the CPSC suggested that certificates be posted at a company website, which potentially works until the item is too small or the information would impact the design. (Where do you put a web address on a sock?).  Further, a typical retailer may offer hundreds, if not thousands, of products for which they must produce a certificate if requested, presenting a data and risk management nightmare.

This is, of course, not the first time that companies have faced these information sharing challenges.  In fact, a recent Aberdeen Research report found that many companies continue to rely solely on email, phone and fax to collaborate with over 90 percent of their trading-partner community.  For years, standards bodies have worked to develop common vocabularies to help streamline supply and demand chains.  However, with the rapid timelines required by the CPSIA and with limited B2B automation and uptake for a variety of existing standards, a new approach for compliance is required - one that could forever change the way we think about exchanging supply chain information.

Making Supply Chains Social

If social software products such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have taught us anything, it is that we live in an age of transparency.  I no longer simply send a private email to a friend about my weekend activities; I "tweet" my information to a public audience.  Further, I don't maintain a personal website or blog, but instead favor publishing information to a network where friends can see not only my information, but that of many others.  In much the same way, manufacturers and retailers must embrace open networks and simple categorization methods as a way to deal with the dizzying array of compliance and information sharing challenges they face.  Providing data or certificates such as that required by the CPSIA to an online community, where all supply chain participants are peers and can readily access information in a human-readable form, helps individual companies and entire industries to lower costs, reduce risks, and simplify compliance.

The CPSIA may have created new challenges for the supply chain, but it also creates new opportunities.  Companies are now using these new compliance mandates as a way to rethink how they share data, embracing the supply chain as a community where information can be rapidly disseminated and democratized.  Making supply chains social means making them transparent.

Now that might actually be something worth tweeting about.

Source: RollStream

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Sourcing/Procurement/SRM Technology Global Supply Chain Management Quality & Metrics Supply Chain Security & Risk Mgmt Industrial Manufacturing
KEYWORDS Global Supply Chain Management Industrial Manufacturing Quality & Metrics SC Security & Risk Mgmt Sourcing/Procurement/SCM Supply Chain Analysis & Consulting Technology
  • Related Articles

    How Health and Safety Cuts in UK Could Affect Rest of the World

    Get Ready for the Food Safety Enhancement Act

    Q&A | How the Supply Chain Impacts Food Safety

Kristin Muhlner, Chief Executive Officer, RollStream

More from this author

Wake up to live
“Supply Chains in Crisis”
updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • INTERIOR OF A CHICKEN FARM, WITH WHITE CHICKENS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE

    Worst Avian Flu in U.S. History Is Hitting Poultry

    Food & Beverage
  • TWO FINGERS MANIPULATE WOODEN LETTER BLOCKS TO TURN FROM SHOWING THE WORD RECOVERY TO RESILIENCE

    Five Challenges to Supply Chain Resilience in 2023

    Supply Chain Visibility
  • A PERSON HOLDS UP A TABLET COMPUTER IN A WAREHOUSE, SUPER-IMPOSED BY A GRAPHIC SHOWING A COMPLEX WEB OF SUPPLY CHAIN ELEMENTS

    Three Post-Pandemic Actions for Repairing Global Supply Chains

    Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
  • A MAN IN A SUIT SHAKES HANDS WITH A WOMAN IN A HARD HAT, NEXT TO A STACK OF CONTAINERS

    Three Procurement Technology Evolutions for 2023

    Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
  • The blank stare of a child's eye who is standing behind what appears to be a wooden frame

    The Alarming Continued Rise of Modern Slavery in Supply Chains: How Procurement Can Help Reverse the Trend

    Sourcing/Procurement/SRM

Digital Edition

Scb nov 2022 sm

2022 Supply Chain Innovator of the Year

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • New Revenue for Cloud-Based TMS that Embeds Orderful’s Modern EDI Platform

  • Convenience Store Client Maximizes Profit and Improves Customer Service

  • A Digitally Native Footwear Brand Finds Rapid Fulfillment

  • Expanding Apparel Brand Scales Seamlessly with E-Commerce Technology

  • How a Global LSP Scaled its Security Program and Won More Business

Visit Our Sponsors

Orderful Yang Ming Alithya
Barcoding Blue Yonder BNSF Logistics
CoEnterprise Data Capture Deposco
E2open GAINSystems Generix
Geodis GEP GreyOrange
Here Honeywell Intelligrated IFM
Infor Inmar Keelvar
Kinaxis Korber Lean Solutions Group 2H
Liberty SBF Locus Robotics Logility
LogistiVIEW Lucas Systems MCA Connect
MPO Nvidia Old Dominion
OpenText ORTEC Overhaul
Parsyl PMMI QIMA
Redwood Logistics Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash Saddle Creek Logistics
Schneider Dedicated Setlog Holding AG Ship4WD
Shipwell Tecsys TGW Systems
Thomson Reuters Tive Trailer Bridge
Vecna Robotics Verity
Verusen
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2023 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing