What is SLCP factory inspection? What are the main content and review process of SLCP factory inspection? What is the relationship between SLCP factory inspection and HIGG FSLM? Today, the editor will take you to understand the things about SLCP.

Introduction to SLCP factory inspection

The full name of SLCP is Social and Labor Convergence Project, a social labor integration project facilitated by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). The first batch of signing companies include Nike, Adidas, Target, the standard holding organization WRAP, and a non-profit supply chain improvement expert team Sedex. SLCP itself is only an industry standard. SLCP has not developed its own IT platform, but uses other organizations' IT platforms for verification. Currently, SLCP has three hosting platforms, namely AH (Accredited Host, approved hosting platform), which are FFC/SEDEX/SAC HIGG.

Since 2018, SAC has replaced its own tool Higg Factory Social and Labor Module (FSLM) with SLCP's ConvergedAssessmentFramework (CAF), which has become the backbone of the updated Higg FSLM. SLCP issues have been integrated into the updated Higg FSLM , while the Higg FSLM enabled the verification method developed by SLCP. Therefore, if customers need SLCP inspection, they can do it through Higg FSLM verification. One of the concepts of SLCP is to reduce the industry's repeated audits through a unified project, which includes labor, health and safety, but does not include environmental protection.

The data on the SLCP platform is confidential, and it is up to the factory to decide whether to share the SLCP-verified evaluation data with the approved hosting platform. The biggest advantage of SLCP is information sharing. Many brands have become SLCP signatories, using the same standard, reducing repeated factory inspections, and information is easy to share.

Main content of SLCP factory inspection

There are nine verification items in the SLCP factory inspection:

Recruitment and employment: child labor/forced labor/discrimination/employment practices

Working hours: normal time/overtime

Salary and benefits: salary income/welfare treatment

Employee treatment: forced labor/discipline/harassment/abuse/discrimination

Employee participation: freedom of association/collective bargaining/grievance mechanism/employee feedback

Health and Safety: Wage Environment/Emergency Preparedness/Construction Safety/Workplace Safety

Employment Relationship: Forced Labor / Discrimination / Employment Practices

Management system: regular working hours/overtime working hours

Employee Wellbeing: Worker Wellbeing/Community Impact

SLCP self-evaluation and third-party verification results

Whether it is SLCP/Higg FSLM or Higg FEM, they are just an industry standard and a measurement tool. They are not traditional audits. There is no PASS or FAIL, but only verification. The SLCP verification result is the ratio of the factory's self-evaluation result to the actual verification result of the third-party company. Therefore, the final SLCP verification result shows two percentages: the percentage of completion and the percentage of accuracy.

Generally speaking, the higher the two ratios, the better, but the higher the percentage obtained, it does not mean that the performance of the verified factory is better, but only reflects the higher transparency of the factory.

For the problems found in the actual verification, different customers also have different requirements. For example, some will require continuous improvement, and some will require improvement plans and on-site follow-up.

A factory that has completed the verification will receive a certificate of completion of the verification. State when the facility was certified and for how long. On another formal report, the two final validation parameters mentioned above are displayed: percentage of self-assessment completion and self-assessment accuracy.

SLCP audit/Higg FSLM verification process

1. Visit the Higg official website and fill in the factory information;
2. Purchase the FSLM factory labor self-assessment module and fill it in. This assessment contains a lot of content. It is recommended to consult a professional third party before filling it out;
3. Upload the FSLM self-assessment form, and customers can learn about the company through Higg FSLM self-assessment;

If the customer does not require on-site verification, it is basically over; if the factory requires on-site verification, you need to continue with the following steps;
4. Visit the Higg official website and purchase the vFSLM verification module;
5. Contact the appropriate third-party testing agency for inquiry and payment , Agree on the inspection date;
6. Determine the verification agency on the Higg system;
7. Arrange on-site verification, and upload the verification report to the Higg official website;
8. The customer checks the actual situation of the factory through the system report.

The SLCP audit mainly involves the following costs

SLCP inspection/Higg FSLM verification requires the purchase of two modules:

Module 1: FSLM self-assessment module

As long as the customer makes a request, regardless of whether on-site verification is required, the factory must purchase the FSLM self-assessment module.

Module 2: vFSLM Verification Module

If the customer requires the factory to accept Higg FSLM environmental field verification, the factory must purchase the vFSLM verification module.

Precautions for SLCP factory inspection

1. SLCP verification data can be shared from one AH to another AH (hosting platform). After the SLCP verification is completed, the factory can share the verification data with customers using the same AH or other AHs in any AH.

2. To operate SLCP on the platform, you must associate with SLCPGateway to perform subsequent operations. If you do not associate, you cannot verify or share. If the customer requires the factory to do SLCP, the factory can directly purchase and complete FSLM on HIGG, and it needs to be associated with SLCPGateway.

3. There are about 3,000 inspection points in SLCP/FSLM. According to experience, it takes about 2-3 weeks for a factory to complete a self-assessment. When the supplier completes the self-assessment required by the customer, remember to set aside enough time to ensure Complete the self-assessment before the node required by the customer.

4. SLCP factory inspection recommends to find a suitable third-party inspection agency from the self-assessment stage, that is, before the verification, to assist in the completion of the self-assessment test and the subsequent factory inspection verification stage, so as to avoid low self-assessment scores and affect the effect of factory information sharing.