Historic Futures

To make better products tomorrow, we must know where they come from today.

Collecting reliable, up-to-date information from supply chains is surprisingly difficult. We work with companies to help them understand the data they need collect to deliver the benefits they seek. We also work to design, develop and deploy tools to improve the management of value chain data, from primary production to finished product.

String3

Your supply chains at your fingertips

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What we are doing

Knowing where products come from and how they got here is important – to consumers, to companies, to regulators, and to the planet.

From our 14 years of experience, we've learnt that...

We work with companies to provide strategies, frameworks and tools to assess the products they purchase. The assessment may be for legal compliance (e.g. Modern Slavery Act, EUTR etc.), for business improvement (strategic sourcing, portfolio rationalisation etc.) or for product development (embedded energy, water footprint etc.)

We work with any product. Our mission is to create a framework to measure value chain performance rather than define what that performance should be.

It's not impossible

The lack of accurate and complete information about the history of individual products makes informed sourcing decisions and reliable product claims impossible.

We know that getting that information is hard to do, but it is possible - we’ve done it. Over the past 14 years we have worked with some of the world’s largest brands and retailers on ground breaking projects – delivering unique insight into how global supply chain networks operate.

We continue to pioneer new approaches. We focused on a simple solution for supply chain risk management with the design of String3. Visit the site, or get in touch, to find out more.

Why should I care?

We believe that value chain maps can unlock real business value. Understanding a product’s history reduces risk and provides an important and powerful opportunity to create sustainable value.

Our mission

Our story

Over the last 14 years we have worked with some of the world’s largest brands and retailers to collect accurate data about millions of items from thousands of businesses throughout hundreds of value chains - from finished product back to raw material.

Along the way we have worked with our customers from idea to implementation – ranging across brand strategy, corporate risk, procurement processes, solution implementation and training. We’ve learned to keep it simple, and to focus on the people involved – throughout the supply chain.

If you need help with anything from business case development and project initiation through to tool selection and supplier on-boarding, please get in touch.

Meet the team

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What information do you need about value chains?

We want to learn more about the challenges and opportunities you face with regards to mapping your value chains - what data you think is actually required, how often and why? We are reviewing the ‘state-of-the-art’, analysing the underlying requirements and elaborating the business cases. We would love to hear from you.

Take our survey

Email us

research@historicfutures.com

Our thinking

Assessment, awareness…alleviation?: Tackling modern slavery (effectively) is a minority practice in pursuit of dominance

Just over 20 months ago the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) came into effect in the UK. It was widely hailed as a timely piece of legislation to address the (almost anachronistic) problem of slavery and human trafficking in the 21st century. By targeting supply chains, the act aims to ensure that businesses neither fuel demand for slave/forced labour, nor put consumers in a position where they purchase goods produced by workers under duress (McClean, 2015).

Read Assessment, awareness…alleviation? in full