It doesn’t always take a village—sometimes it takes an orchestra.
As supply chains face growing pressure from tariffs, sustainability regulations and increasing demands for transparency, companies are realizing they can’t tackle these challenges alone. True end-to-end visibility depends on the entire value chain working together.
During a recent discussion on Inspectorio’s State of Supply Chain Report 2026, Nate Fleming, SVP of marketing at Inspectorio, brought together industry leaders to discuss the forces reshaping supply chain management—and how companies can stay ahead. One major concept? Symphonization.
“There are too many different models out there with too many players at different stages of their supply chain journeys for a one-size-fits-all solution,” said Avedis Seferian, president and CEO, Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP).
He compared today’s supply chain ecosystem to an orchestra, where every instrument plays a different part, yet together they create something greater than any one section could achieve on its own.
“[Looking at compliance], the idea is you have various tools out there, all making the due diligence exercise possible in their own way,” he said. “But you have to recognize there’s more than one way to play the song.”
Instead of expecting every company to follow a single approach, Seferian believes organizations should focus on making sure different systems and standards work together. Such coordination—or “symphonization”—can reduce redundancies and audit fatigue while giving companies the flexibility to use the tools that work best for them.
Dr. Thiwanka de Fonseka, chief sustainability officer at Komar Brands, agreed. He pointed to shared industry platforms and common tools as ways to cut down on duplicate work, lower costs, improve data quality and encourage greater supplier participation. It’s not about strict standardization per se, but interoperability.
“It’s very important to understand where this common industry tool lies. It might not appease 100% of your requirement, but if it can give you the final primary data that you will use for certain disclosures or certain due diligence, that’s where you really want to go,” said Dr. de Fonseka. “Otherwise, audit fatigue will really impose a bad impact on the manufacturers and even the brand in terms of the added cost. If you use these common tools, then all the brands or manufacturers will share the cost, so there’s no bigger impact in terms of the resources.”
Better Data, Better Decisions
One of the biggest takeaways from Inspectorio’s report is that while AI adoption across supply chains is accelerating, many organizations still don’t have the data foundation needed to take full advantage of it. Success comes when companies not only collect the right data, but have the wherewithal to properly analyze and apply it.
That means getting granular. Companies must look beyond a factory’s total energy consumption to individual manufacturing processes. Only then can companies identify emissions hotspots, compare supplier performance and generate useful AI-driven insights.
“Legacy systems don’t give you the granular data, so this is where you need to evolve your data collections; not just to appease regulatory requirements but to assure that you achieve your data set for 2030 targets,” said Dr. de Fonseka.
A factory may know its overall emissions are high, but unless it can pinpoint that, say, the dyeing process is driving most of those emissions, it can’t act. Understanding where emissions occur—at both the process and product levels—helps companies decide whether they should invest in new machinery, improve manufacturing processes, switch materials or work more closely with brand partners on sustainability initiatives.
“Investments can be very expensive, and you need data to help you prioritize,” he said.
Compliance as Business Priority
When it comes to compliance, manufacturers are juggling an ever-growing list of reporting requirements covering labor practices, environmental performance, product composition and supply chain due diligence. New regulations continue to emerge across Europe, North America and Asia, while shifting tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty complicate compliance further. The catch? Most companies aren’t adding headcount to manage the extra work.
But missing compliance requirements can delay shipments, disrupt sourcing, damage brand reputation and expose companies to significant financial risk. Companies that diversify their supplier networks in response to tariffs and other market pressures, are now weighing the tradeoffs. For example, saving 10% of costs by switching suppliers isn’t worth losing visibility into Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 suppliers.
“I tell people that 10% of zero is zero if you don’t receive your goods [due to detainment],” said Ronnie Robinson, owner and president of R Squared Consulting. “To me it’s about utilizing tools that are out there, whether it’s AI or whatever else, to give you the information in real time using real data gathered behind the scenes without additional legwork. You’ll get the level of compliance that you’re looking for and the ability to sleep at night.”
Data is also not static, and can be used for additional purposes beyond its original intent.
Natasha Franck, founder and CEO of product traceability and digital identity platform EON, gave the example of digital product passports (DPPs), which unlocks “so much data once a single source of truth is established.”
New regulations in the EU point to the need for full life cycle data of a product, especially if an item was sold, resold, recycled, owned, repaired, etc. “You’re building that source of truth that essentially holds the birth certificate information of that product, but then that product is going to generate new data that we don’t even think about today. Rather than just a photograph of product data on how a product was made, it’s more of a motion picture; a dynamic film about the entire life cycle of the asset.”
Franck also likened the data to a prism, where a light goes in one side and a rainbow comes out the other. Once you build the digital ID with a few data points—sustainability and material attributes, etc.—you can connect that single source of truth to AI. “You can then ask AI to build a workflow that starts to build marketing narratives around that.”
AI: Moving Beyond the Buzz
Artificial intelligence continues to dominate conversations across the supply chain industry, but those conversations are becoming much more practical.
Of course, technology is only as good as the data behind it. Disconnected systems, incomplete supplier information and inconsistent product data still limit what AI can accomplish. That’s why many organizations are strengthening their data foundations before expanding their AI initiatives.
Once that groundwork is in place, AI can help automate repetitive administrative tasks, flag supply chain disruptions, identify emerging risks and validate supplier information faster than manual processes allow.
