Technology company Higg Co has partnered with the Open Apparel Registry (OAR) in a move aimed at streamlining facility data records for the apparel industry.
The OAR is a free, neutral, open-source tool mapping garment facilities worldwide and assigns a unique ID to each. It is a source for identifying apparel facilities and their affiliations, organising supplier lists from industry stakeholders into one central map and database. Each record includes the facility name, address, and OAR ID, and displays a list of which organisations have contributed this data and are connected to the facility.
Data is contributed to the OAR by stakeholders across the apparel sector, including multi-stakeholder initiatives, brands and retailers, facilities and factory groups, service providers, and civil society organisations.
Today (27 October), it has announced the integration via API of facility name and address data from the Higg sustainability software platform, establishing an “unprecedented collaboration” to optimise facility data records for the clothing sector.
The integration allows a facility to link its Higg Index account to its OAR profile using an OAR ID. Supply chain partners can then use a facility’s OAR ID to find its Higg Index assessments on the Higg platform.
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API stands for “application programming interface”. This is a mechanism in software technology that refers to how multiple applications can interact with and obtain data from one another. Higg Co is the first organisation that has chosen to connect with the OAR’s push-pull API, enabling it to both programmatically pull data from the system, but also to contribute (or push) data to the OAR in an automated manner. Connecting to the OAR via API enables organisations to ensure that their data on the OAR is current and up to date, without the need to manually update their list.
The integration is, therefore, said to save time, along with collating disparate facility lists into one central, uniform repository, and mitigating the risk of inaccurate data sharing.
By adopting the unique OAR IDs, Higg Co is signalling its support for the OAR as a key source of credible facility data in the apparel sector. Connecting with the OAR via API enables Higg Co to maintain facility profile data in real-time, ensuring that the data shared between the organisations is current and up to date.
The integration effort represents a significant step towards greater collaboration, transparency, and accountability across the global supply chain, Higg Co and OAR said, adding it also presents the data in a structured, open format, for practical use.
“As a neutral, open-source tool used by the entire apparel industry, the OAR exists to tackle the long-standing problem of facility identification,” explained Natalie Grillon, executive director of the Open Apparel Registry. “By integrating data with the OAR via API, Higg Co is not only enhancing the necessary processing of data for its customers, but also sending a strong message to industry about the importance of collaboration and the value of a single, central ID to act as a common identifier across databases and systems.
“In turn, through having a better understanding of shared connections at the facility level, the opportunities for organisations to collaborate on meaningful change are truly enormous.”
Each facility contributed to the OAR is processed by a sophisticated name and address matching algorithm, which recognises where facilities have already been contributed to the database. This process eradicates data duplications and provides users with an understanding of the multiple affiliations of each facility. Every facility in the OAR is allocated its own unique OAR ID similar to a person’s social security or national identity number. An industry-standard method of identification, the OAR ID eases the management of facility data, creating efficiency for users across the entire apparel sector.
More than 18,000 global facilities, including those that work with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s global members, already use the Higg platform. Higg facilities new to the OAR can choose to be included in the registry, contributing to the open-source, industry-wide effort for shared identification of manufacturing facilities.
“The management of supply chain data records has traditionally been complicated and unreliable,” said John Armstrong, Higg Co chief technology officer. “By sharing data via API across the Higg and Open Apparel Registry platforms, we are setting a new standard that helps the apparel industry better manage and maintain this data, advancing the goal of transparency and accountability of data throughout the global supply chain.”
In addition to helping facilities efficiently manage their data, the new API integration also aims to help brands more easily maintain supply chain records and comply with efforts like Fashion Revolution’s Fashion Transparency Index and the Transparency Pledge, which require that brands submit facility lists annually, and the Good on You app, which awards credit in its labour rights section for supply chain disclosure via the OAR.
