Altana's Atlas which applies AI to billions of public and non-public data points to provide governments with supply chain visibility and insights has found the apparel sector is particularly vulnerable to the ongoing Red Sea disruption.

The company has suggested Europe has a near total reliance on Asia for goods such as handbags with upwards of 90% coming from the region and transitting via the Red Sea in normal times.

Altana noted that while some firms are likely to see significant disruption, others whose supply chains depend more on suppliers outside of Asia will likely see minimal impact.

The organisation has teamed up with the UK Government's Department for Business & Trade (DBT) to expand the scope of its Global Supply Chain Intelligence Programme (GSCIP) and use AI to make informed decisions related to the global supply chain.

The multi-year contract will allow Altana's AI platform to be used as the basis of the GSCIP data model, which combines government data and private sector data with big data analytics to scale the connected and intelligent global supply chain map in a secure government cloud infrastructure.

Altana emphasised this partnership aims to provide the UK government with the capability to generate policy-informing insights as well as operational programmes to support UK national interests.

Using Altana Atlas for supply chain insights

Altana pointed out its Atlas means member departments can make recommendations and develop public policies based on the latest changes to the supply chain such as the current disruptions in the Red Sea, allowing departments to get in front of issues before they disrupt national interests.

Altana has worked with the GSCIP programme for the past two years, which it added saw a "rapid increase" in results early in the partnership. The company believes that with Altana's AI-powered platform, the UK's Department for Business & Trade has significantly reduced the time it takes for a department to initiate a supply chain inquiry and disseminate the data's actionable findings.

Altana shared that its propriety platform and visualisation tools have been used by the consortium of seven UK Government departments to investigate companies, products, trade lanes, and acute risks permeating the global supply chain.

The technical infrastructure for GSCIP is said to comprise Altana’s secure digital environment platform and UK Government datasets, which are all held on UK Government cloud infrastructure.

Altana noted that evolving from reactive national supply chain risk management will allow the UK Government to identify vulnerabilities in national supply chains and business networks of interest, streamlining quicker routes toward creating alternative pathways to overcome these vulnerabilities.

Evan Smith, CEO and co-founder of Altana, said: "The UK GSCIP is a visionary initiative to build supply chain resilience through a common operating picture between and among UK government agencies and the private sector. It is also a groundbreaking use of Altana’s supply chain data and AI platform, with both technical and non-technical users across the government working from and building on our supply chain map. We’re proud to provide the single source of truth for the global supply chain to His Majesty’s Government, unlocking economic security, procurement efficiencies, and business resilience for critical industries across the UK."

Altana said it will continue to provide the GSCIP with a common operating picture of the global supply chain, facilitating proactive supply chain resilience planning and decision making.

Altana claimed its suite of tools has greatly benefited GSCIP participants by reducing operational costs and providing rapid insights from its Altana Atlas that are verifiable, citable, and sourced from a repeatable repository of information for informing public policy, such as the UK's recently published report Critical Imports and Supply Chain Strategy which aimed to understand and build resilience in the country's supply chains.