Improving traceability for the textile sector

The Icare and Management Informatics Institutes of the HES-SO Valais have carried out the CTI FairTrace project with the company Importexa, which has developed a real-time information system that makes it possible to track a product at each stage of production and processing from the raw material to the finished product.

Distributors or brands using this system have an important competitive advantage by offering their partners, as well as their customers, reliable and controllable information, such as transparency of information, guarantee and security of products. The information system in place can be extended to the transfer of all types of data (e.g. data on the substances used in the manufacture of the product, in order to meet the requirements of the REACH regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals) or data relating to AEO (Authorised Economic Operator) customs security, etc.). The main impact of FairTrace is to put “clean” products on the market in accordance with social and environmental ethics and to communicate this information in real time to the end consumer who wishes to check the origin of a product and the conditions in which it was manufactured and transported.

As a result of the CTI project, a working prototype is currently being used by Importexa S.A. to track the production of its orders in one of its Indian textile mills. In order to approach new customers, particularly in sectors other than textiles, the platform requires in-depth work to put it into production and industrialise it. The objective of this maturing project is to obtain a marketable FairTrace application. To do this, it is a question of preparing the infrastructure for production, reinforcing the industrialisation of the software, developing a “Self-assessment and company profile” tool in order to be able to acquire new clients, and preparing the integration of a cosmetics sector.