Daily CSR
Daily CSR

Daily CSR
Daily news about corporate social responsibility, ethics and sustainability

Deepening Customers’ Understanding Of Dell’s Global Supply Chain



12/04/2018

Dell conducts tours for its customers to visit the supply chain facilities, whereby it has now created a virtual reality tour for the customers worldwide to savour the experience.


Dailycsr.com – 04 December 2018 – There is a growing awareness in the customers who are taking more and more interest about the “social and environmental impact of the products they buy”. The “Global Corporate Sustainability Report” 2015 of Nielsen showed that 66% of the customers don’t mind spending extra for availing products as well as services that contribute towards “positive social and environmental impact”.
 
Dell often receives queries regarding their supply chain’s “social and environmental impact”. Customers inquire about the source of raw materials, the treatment of workers at work premise and how the earth gets affected by their operations.
 
Dell, however, obliges to these queries and discloses the information as their commitment, whereby abiding by one of their “2020 Legacy of Good goals” of 100% transparency on key issues regarding their supply chain as well as about the collaborated effort with the suppliers in mitigating the risks in the related areas.
 
Dell has made it their goal to conduct a hundred percent audit on “high-risk direct materials suppliers”, which is determined by “geographic location, business relationship, commodity and past audit performance”. Besides, the company is also to scrutinise and choose its service suppliers after profiling the suppliers of “logistics, call centers and packaging” along with other commodities. The audit thus mentioned will be carried out minimum every alternative year to ensure the maintenance of high standards of ethical behaviour in accordance to the “Responsible Business Alliance Code of Conduct”.
 
While, Dell further added:
“We also require key suppliers to publish a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based sustainability report, publicly report their carbon emissions and water use data, and submit a water risk mitigation plan. To give customers transparency into all of these areas, as well as others, such as responsible sourcing and protecting vulnerable workers, we publish a Supply Chain Sustainability Progress Report and a Responsible Minerals Sourcing Report”.
 
Event though, the above mentioned data form the backbone of transparent operations, Dell went beyond it to “do even more” in order to deepen “customers’ understanding of global supply chain conditions”. As a result, from the year of 2015, Dell reports, “we have hosted customers on annual, in-person tours of suppliers’ facilities, each time visiting a different city”.
 
However, in 2017, the tour was conducted in “Chengdu, China” for paying a visit to “Wistron and Compal”, two “original design manufacturers” of Dell. The entire trip experience has been filmed and as a “virtual reality tour” has been made available to anyone across the globe.
 
Talking about the filming process, Dell added:
“Filming the tour (as opposed to staging a video) was important to us. It was created as actual customers explored the facility’s manufacturing floor, recreation areas and dorms (Many workers come from other cities and countries for work.). We also captured the worker-engagement sessions in which customers directly asked workers about their living and working conditions. The virtual reality tour enables others to get a sense of what it’s like to work and live in a factory”.
 
References:
3blmedia.com