Transparency Through the Supply Chain
The Protocol Consumption Management Solution (PCMS)
The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol is also the world’s first sustainable cotton fiber program to offer article-level supply chain transparency.
The PCMS is our traceability and transparency solution that allows the tracking of U.S. Cotton and cotton specifically grown on Protocol producers’ farms.
The result for brand and retailer members complete visibility of each stage of production, as well as absolute validation of the origin of the cotton fiber tracked into their finished products.
At the beginning of the process, a brand selects which products to track, their suppliers, and the season to begin. The supply chain is then informed of the requirements and ultimately the demand requirements are communicated downward to the yarn spinners who source the required U.S. Cotton or cotton specifically grown on Protocol producers’ farms.
Merchants, marketing cooperatives and agents upload the initial fiber shipment in files that contains each unique Permanent Bale Identification (PBI) number which is validated in the PCMS against the USDA/FAS database for authenticity and non-duplication.
The Protocol Platform then sends this data to the supply chain systems, currently through TextileGenesis™ where all suppliers – including fiber, yarn, fabric and garment makers who are all members of the Trust Protocol – will perform their three required steps.
After the finished product shipments have been recoded to the brand and retail member, the shipment and consumption data is placed on the Brand Dashboard to allow them to see data related to each shipment by purchase order, as well as the total volume of cotton specifically grown on Protocol producers’ farms or U.S. Cotton fiber consumed.
Protocol Consumption Management Solution
Watch this short video to learn more about the PCMS
