Did you know that the FBI estimates U.S. businesses lose between $200 and $250 billion a year to product counterfeiting? Or that 46% of component manufacturers report that they have encountered counterfeit versions of their products?
Supply chains are an integral part of every organization’s global business operations, but as one of the most collaborative environments, it also represents a place of great vulnerability.
Fortunately, NS2 Labs and Gray Analytics are teaming up to develop a prototype framework that will help organizations secure the process from factory to end user, be more proactive in responding to changes that pop up in their supply chain, and reduce the risk of counterfeit.
Our anti-counterfeit solution, Trusted System Assessment and Assurance Framework (TSAAF), will provide users with improved control and visibility into their ever-shifting and dynamic supply chain.
TSAAF focuses on identifying information shared in the supply chain through the monitoring of bill of materials and gives organizations the ability to be proactive in the management of the items in their portfolio of responsibility. Here’s how TSAAF works:
1. Upload your bill of materials.
It’s the metaphorical “handing over the keys” and in doing so, the manual work is removed from monitoring the items within your supply chain and the real visibility begins.
2. Access the open-source information regarding the items in your bill of materials.
Anything and everything you could want to know about where the components in your products are coming from will be at your fingertips. This stage is all about identifying and ensuring where you are sourcing from.
What is the quality of the product? What is the legitimacy of the supplier you’re working with? What is the supplier’s ethics history and long-term health?
You thought you had a quality assembly—now you will have the information available to confirm that belief.
By doing so, you will also confirm if there are any existing counterfeit parts for a specific item, any recalls due to a defect with manufacturing or corrupt code, insertion of counterfeit components, potential geographic disruptions on the horizon, or any irregularities in shipping.
3. Monitor the health of your bill of materials with a dashboard.
Think of this as a visual chart of key measurables that gives organizations the ability to monitor the health of each deliverable in their supply chain. This dashboard will cover off on the number of defects, committed deliveries, and metrics related to sub-suppliers.
All the information you’ll need to forecast whether you need to increase your supply, change the design, or change up inventory providers, will be available in a simple to understand panel.
4. Be proactive when red flags appear.
Along with real-time monitoring comes real-time follow-up for any issues spotted regarding a questionable item or product in your supply chain. While the typical notification process is fairly lengthy, TSAAF will notify you immediately when a counterfeit part has been identified.
This information not only helps with quality internal audits, but allows you to be more proactive with customers.
Security is imperative to avoid product counterfeiting being passed off to customers, and as shown above, TSAAF has the potential to be the ideal solution to securing the sourcing vulnerabilities within your supply chain. We can give organizations complete control and visibility into the most collaborative parts of their supply chain while helping them be proactive in managing the items in their portfolio. If you’d like more information on how TSAAF and SAP NS2 can strengthen the security of your organization’s supply chain, reach out today.
