Securing the supply lines

THE increasing complexity of global supply chains has made it harder to prevent illicit trade in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to auto parts, but new innovative solutions developed by private sector players are helping governments and companies win the fight.

Many products today have materials and parts sourced from suppliers around the world, assembled and packed at different locations, before going through a multi-tiered distribution to reach the end customer. This complexity is making it difficult for manufacturers to be clear about the quality and content of inputs from sub-contractors if they do not have robust control measures in place.

"This level of complexity in supply chains makes them vulnerable to counterfeiting, especially in the last link of the supply chain, which are dominated by a large number of spread-out local distributors and smaller retailers, with limited or no means to verify product authenticity," said consultancy Frost & Sullivan in a report.