Brands and retailers must ensure their products comply with market destination standards and regulations.
However, consolidating compliance documents can be a challenging task. Many factors weigh in the complex job of ensuring compliance:
- Stricter regulation and the complexity of the regulation
- Increased specific product safety obligations for providers of online marketplaces
- Reinforced product traceability requirements
- Large number of product documentation from various supply chain stakeholders requiring time and technical expertise
In the European Union alone, 3,206 alerts were issued through Safety Gate in 2023 (as of 10 Dec) for products at risk of non-compliance. It is an increase of 51% compared with the no. of alerts issued in 2022. Among all, 282 (8%) came from clothing, textiles and fashion items, which has increased by 41% since 2022.
Source: Safety Gate – the EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products
In many instances, it is not easy to handle this internally. This administrative burden also attracts its own risks and the need for technical review, as nearly one-third of the documents evaluated by our experts are found to be non-compliant. Reasons for this include:
- Complexity with keeping records up to date
- Multiplicity of suppliers with different maturity and contacts (to be competitive and ensure effective pricing, brands tend to diversify)
- Numerous documents requiring the right expertise, including knowing the applicable regulations to ask for the appropriate documents
- No dedicated team: Considered a dull, administrative task by brand engineers but cannot be completed by someone without technical knowledge
- Process too slow vs. rotation of collections too fast
- Significant time required
- No proper interface to coordinate document collection and review
SgT’s TCF (Technical Compliance File) solution
To help relieve many of the compliance pressures that your supply chain currently faces, SgT presents our dedicated TCF solution. Leveraging over 18 years of experience in this service, our team of local and global textile quality experts successfully guided customers through an increasingly regulated market with all the technical compliance files available 24/7 online.
The TCF is a digital ID of your product and its proven compliance with the latest applicable standards and regulations, including:
- Applicable protocols
- Document validation/rejection
- Validity over time
We offer support with:
- Setting adequate procedures
- Defining the relevant scope of compliance
- Helping establish additional quality and safety criteria that go beyond compliance
- Collecting and validating a high volume of documents quickly
- Gathering all the documents in one place (available for 10 years)
- Corrective actions and suggestions for artwork
- Monitor the relevancy of the scope in the context of regulation changes
- Compliance lab testing if missing
- Product Validation Report (PVR).
In addition to our experts’ regulatory guidance, brands appreciate the minimal investment required, enjoy a higher degree of control with our clear digital platform, and are ultimately ready to provide the valid required documentation in cases of custom verification.
Benefits
- Reliable proof and increased visibility
- Cost and time savings (vs. internally handled)
- Internal resource allocation in strategic tasks
- Fast reply to authorities (documents available in one click)
- Increased consumer satisfaction
Our easy-to-use TCF platform
Leveraging our years of experience in offering this service and valuable feedback from our clients, we have designed a user-friendly platform that supports our TCF solutions, which enables you to continually keep your eye on files in progress, those completed, and those expiring soon.
Suppliers benefit from this convenient system by uploading the documents required to complete a TCF, receiving regular updates about a TCF status, and guidance from our experts on the next steps needed for any rejected documentation.
Interested in finding out more about how our TCF solutions can help your brand?
