October 2022

amfori BSCI
Continuous Improvement :
Briefing Document

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 1.Introduction
What is Continuous Improvement?
Continuous Improvement is a core value of amfori BSCI Due Diligence System. It
helps Business Partners to update and strengthen their observance of human and
labor rights, in their operations and throughout the supply chain, usually based on the
findings of monitoring activity.
amfori BSCI relies on a balanced combination of autonomy and responsibility to guide
the relationships between Members and their Business Partners. The goal is for amfori
Members to support Business Partners’ and their progress and Continuous
Improvement while allowing them to take ownership of their own corporate social
responsibilities.
Note: The term “Continuous Improvement” replaces "remediation plan/CAP" in the
legacy platforms. It is an umbrella term that still covers both concepts of improvement
following a monitoring activity, but also gives a chance to demonstrate more
aspirational improvement.
Continuous Improvement is part of the amfori BSCI Monitoring activities along with
Self-Assessment Questionnaire and Social Audits.

What is the benefit of using Continuous Improvement for

Members and Business Partners?
a) Achieving Certifications

amfori BSCI and BEPI help to achieve certifications as the Green Button.
Independent auditing contributes to internal processes and allows companies
to create a sustainable baseline. Going beyond auditing as explained in the
amfori System Manual drives Continuous Improvement which will be displayed
in the amfori platform. This allows Members to measure their impact on their
supply chain and simplifies reporting for target certifications on such impact.

b) Complying with the law

amfori BSCI and amfori BEPI help coping with the provisions of local legislation.
The Continuous Improvement functionality of the amfori platform contributes to
internal processes and allows companies to create a consistent due diligence
approach, utilizing the amfori System Manual to integrate auditing and internal
processes. Such an approach lowers the workload of the business as the
globally acknowledged amfori solutions are known to local authorities and the
Continuous Improvement contributes to reporting on due diligence efforts
seamlessly.

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 c) Pacifying stakeholders

In response to external stakeholders, the Continuous Improvement functionality

on the amfori platform delivers a striking asset showcasing forward-thinking
long-term engagement with Business Partners in the supply chain. A long-
standing track record with essential factories is indisputable evidence of
sustainable engagement with the supply chain because it is not a mere
assertion but verified through an external platform that unites the supply chain
actors in a concerted effort.

d) Decreasing cost / increasing efficiency

amfori unites business entities with mutual interest to improve social and
environmental performances. Seizing the responsibility is a shared burden,
distributed over the shoulders of mutually linked Members and their suppliers.
Through this link, all parties may contribute to Continuous Improvement. This
increases the impact and effectiveness of the action taken. The platform verifies
this action and makes it transparent within the amfori community. When it
comes to reporting on such activities beyond that, amfori provides a structure
that can be utilized to create unified reporting streams. This increases the
external understanding of internal processes and reports, hence decreasing the
effort and time invested in external reporting, certifications, and engagement.

Interested members could go further and opt for a mutual reporting scheme that
could be the foundation for future certification (also in case amfori will develop
a certification scheme based on Continuous Improvement).

e) Future opportunities

Continuous Improvement could further be used to create a factory-related work

stream, making it the counterpart to Member-driven auditing: Business Partner-
driven Continuous Improvement based on a service-oriented value proposition
for Business Partners. This would relieve the burden of Members to police the
supply chain, decreasing costs, yet again.

What does it contain?

Continuous Improvement includes:
• Remediation
• Continuous Improvement Plan
• Training

What can Members do with it?

Members are encouraged to support their Business Partners to:
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 • Remediate findings in the short and long term no matter the results of
grading of amfori BSCI audits
• Make necessary long-lasting changes
• Integrate the amfori BSCI Code of Conduct into their business culture

What can Business Partners do with it?

In the Continuous Improvement feature, a Business Partner can assign improvement
actions against the findings that are reported in the amfori BSCI Monitoring.
Note: The Business Partner owns the Continuous Improvement process.

Important information
Monitoring Persons play a key role in gathering the information that will initiate the
Continuous Improvement process and incentivize constructive dialogue between
supply-chain partners.

Basic Terminology of Continuous Improvement

• Sustainability Impact: the desired outcome of an improvement activity, e.g.
overall improvement of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Standards in the
factory.

• Measures: the activities that must be completed to achieve the Sustainability

Impact, e.g. investment in new safety equipment, OHS training from amfori for
the Business Partner.

o Internal policies: any activity that involves changing or introducing new

policies/procedures, (i.e., new recruitment policy, the new procedure to
record working hours) in own company or in Business Partners or
service providers.

o Training: any training activity whether delivered to workers or received

by company management

o Consultancy services: any contract with an expert to provide advice or

drive a change process in the company and better align with the amfori
BSCI Code of Conduct principles and values in the social management
systems of the Business Partners

Note: the consultancy services you collaborate with are not specialized
for amfori BSCI audit, therefore the results cannot be guaranteed

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 o Compensation or restoration: reimbursement, payments, or
restoration of victims’ rights (i.e., reintegration of children with their
family, compensation pf unpaid overtime)

o Investments: investment in machinery or hardware

o Other: anything not covered before

2. Continuous improvement: Business Partner View

The Business Partner will need to access their Continuous Improvement screen. On
this screen, a dashboard will show an overview of the sites and their status.

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Findings are marked Covered when they have been addressed in the remediation
plan with actions to improve, and Not covered when they have not been addressed.
Findings are marked Completed when the actions that have been identified to
improve them are marked as completed.
Sustainability Impact and Measures:
➔ When clicking on a site, the main Continuous Improvement screen appears. It
shows the Sustainability Impacts defined by the Business Partner and the
measures to support these impacts. Measures can be defined in different
categories.

➔ When the Business Partner defines a new Sustainability Impact, the system
automatically displays the findings from the latest monitoring activity of this site.
For each finding, the Business Partners can define an impact and therefore
must provide a name, and description and specify the root cause. A
Sustainability impact can apply to more than one find if, for example, the action
provides a remedy for several findings at the same time.

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Edit Impact/Measures:
➔ The Business Partner is responsible for keeping the measures up to date,
setting their due dates, and marking them as complete when the activity is
done.
➔ This activity is visible to all linked Members.
➔ When a sustainability impact is marked as complete, it moves to the
"Completed" tab.

Once you have completed all the measures associated with a specific impact you
can set the Sustainability Impact to ‘Complete’.

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Note: If all Measures are not complete, then the Sustainability Impact cannot be set
to complete.

If everything has been completed, then a success message is now visible.

Now, in the Continuous Improvement overview screen, the Sustainability Impact is

viewable under the ‘Completed’ tab.

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 3. Continuous improvement: Member view

➔ As RSP holder or linked Member, you have access to the Continuous

Improvement information of all your Business Partners.

➔ As such, you have access to all the actions that your Business Partners have
defined to improve their working conditions and to remediate the findings, which
can serve as the starting point to track progress and coach your Business
Partners.

To access this information you can go to the Sustainability tab > Continuous
Improvement.

Select a Business Partner from the list and select the site you would like to review.

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 ➔ You can see the Sustainability Impacts and measures for that site. Both
Sustainability Impacts and their corresponding measures have end dates and
can be marked as completed when done.

4. amfori Academy
If you would like to learn more about Continuous Improvement functionality, please
consult the training materials available on amfori Academy (training 1, training 2,
training 3).

If you have any questions, please contact our Social Programmme Services Lead -
Elif Kalan at elif.kalan@amfori.org.

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