Pg. 96: Onboarding In 2018, we conducted initial assessments (IA), the first approval stage for new entry factories, in 221 factories (2017: 209). The total number increased by around 5% compared to 2017, mainly due to our decision to extend our IA monitoring coverage to suppliers at Tier 2 level. 55 factories (2017: 50 factories) were either rejected directly after the initial assessment identified zero tolerance issues, or were ‘rejected with a second visit’ due to identification of one or more threshold issues, which means they were rejected but given the chance to remediate the non-compliance issues within a specific timeframe.
The comany screened 221 new entry factories in 2018, which is assumed to be the new factories that they considered selecting/contracting with, so they screened 100% of the new suppliers.
The Initial assessment are based on social, workplace and human rights metrics.