Columbia Sportswear was looking for a supplier map for their website and got so much more

Since 2013, Columbia Sportswear Company (CSC) has been sharing their supply chain data publicly on their website via an in-house interactive map. But as the company wanted to enhance the map by adding new levels of suppliers and more data points, they decided to turn to an external provider to manage the publishing of their supply chain data. Their chief motive was to achieve greater recognition of the map and industry alignment.

Columbia first turned to Open Supply Hub when they learned about its Embedded Map feature - an automatic and interactive supplier map that companies can customize and embed on their websites. They were excited to find a supply chain transparency tool that came from a widely known and trusted organization, committed to openness and collaboration. And, as they learned more about OS Hub, they began to see other capabilities beyond simply publishing factory data.

Preparing data to be shared on a collaborative mapping platform has enhanced their internal conversations about data quality. They have reached new levels of clarity around how they categorize processes occurring at facilities and have found OS Hub’s taxonomy guidance particularly helpful. As they add more supply chain tiers to their map, they have also been energized to standardize the data they were collecting and sharing across those tiers.

The functionality of Open Supply Hub and its Embedded Map also allows CSC to meet the requirements of multiple industry assessors (like the Fashion Transparency Index, Transparency Pledge and more). They can easily maintain and share the data points in their customized Embedded Map and make that data available in a machine-readable, downloadable format for external review.

View Columbia Sportswear Company’s Embedded Map