In this issue of Industrial Process News, we are delighted to select Assent Inc as our Supply Chain Sustainability Management Solutions Company of the Month.
Across many complex manufacturers like aerospace, defense, and electronics, there is a myriad of processing and production sequences from multiple supplier partners, to intricate parts that collectively make up a product across the supply chain. Assent is a frontrunner in supply chain management solutions, with expertise spanning back more than a decade, providing a first-rate solution through the SaaS technology platform with managed services and a Regulatory Team of experts. The team keeps customers abreast of the latest local and regional compliance and legal requirements, both nationally and internationally. The solutions are commonly used across product compliance, ESG and trade compliance to firstly, encapsulate, monitor, calibrate and manage supply chain compliance and secondly, sustainability performance of named suppliers. Assent is confident that through this meticulous analysis of supply chain operations and sustainability, customers will make wiser, market-leading decisions.
Assent is a privately held supply chain regulatory management company, with over $500M USD in funding raised over the past 10 years. The company was founded by Jon Hughes and Matthew Whittaker with humble beginnings, from their shared garage in Ottawa, Canada and was officially established in 2010. Both founders had considerable prior expertise in the manufacturing industry, namely durable product testing labs and seized upon an opportunity to forge more cost-effective operations for large global manufacturers through supply chain engagement and education.
With its company roots squarely in Canada, the headquarters remain in Ottawa, with international offices now in London (UK,) Amsterdam (The Netherlands), El Doret (Kenya) Penang (Malaysia) and Columbus and Ohio (USA.) With exponential growth, the solutions company now works on a global scale, with 900 employees across the UK, USA, Canada, The Netherlands, Kenya and the Asian-Pacific (APAC.)
We spoke to Sean Ward: Strategic Account Executive at Assent London for more insight, “Assent provides fully managed services and software related to all aspects of supply chain management. We have a team of supplier support specialists, a team of program/project management professionals, and a team of global regulatory and sustainability experts, among others. We take on the tough job of understanding the requirements that complex manufacturers face, and implementing and fully managing programs to mitigate risk. We’re trusted by top global brands across industries such as Electronics, Medical Device, Industrial Equipment, Aerospace & Defense, and Automotive.”
“Over the past years, Assent has grown across the industry through the ever-growing interest in Environmental Social Governance (ESG), GHG data, PFAS restrictions (forever chemicals), and Forced Labor Enforcement across the globe. The regulatory landscape is in constant growth mode, with geographies such as the EU and North America really focusing on digitisation of product management and data. Manufacturers just aren’t able to manage such requirements all by themselves anymore – it requires the truly global force that Assent expertly provides.”
Assent are proud members of the UN Global Compact and hold B Corp Certification, symbolising significant performance in corporate sustainability and transparency. With a focus on sustainability, the company recently developed its 2025 Corporate Sustainability Roadmap: which lays out goals and KPIs against materials topics, for formal tracking and evaluation in the later annual report.
We asked Sean to share with us the projected future direction for Assent, “Assent looks to make the future of global manufacturing supply chains as sustainable as possible. Our five-year plan includes being able to grow our Environmental Social Governance (ESG) presence and solutions within this market and help companies to gain more transparency within their supply chains.”
“The world will be a very different place in five year’s time, with digitalisation of product data being key to global market access. Partnerships and outsourcing are evermore keys to growth, and so we hope to become the global name associated with all things supply chain management!”
Here at Industrial Process News, we are curious about diversity and inclusion in the workplace and found that Assent is working hard in diversity recruitment and retention, through to inclusive workplaces across all its global offices, as demonstrated through the following examples:
- Assent’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Working Group this employee group serves as a steering committee and drives accountability for meeting goals and objectives. All DEI & ERG progress is reported to the Board of Directors on a focused slide including past & forward looking impacts.
- The Certified B Corporation status helps identify more opportunities for growth and DEI growth is tracked in many ways, including engagement with the Inclusion Matters Slack channel, intranet subscribers, tracking the use of the new WellStyle program and Officevibe monthly surveys.
- This year saw the launch of four Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) focused to further unite global Assentees on this earth and evolve company learning of diverse cultures, identities, and abilities together as one community.
Assent are certainly on a dual mission to look after its staff from a DEI perspective and make the supply chains of complex manufacturers deeply and durably good.
To find your nearest office or to find out more, please see the website below:
https://www.assent.com