Supplier Responsibility at Apple

This means nothing in itself.

My wife has worked fairly extensively in the fashion industry and according to her colleagues there's still major UK retailers where things are still being made by children (whose families depend on the income, BTW).

Effective inspections must be:

* unannounced

* unguided (ie, allow the inspector to visit any part of the factory they wish). Which Apple's don't seem to be.

Otherwise:

* Workers get a crib sheet with answers they give to auditors.

* Anyone who shouldn't be there is let off for the day, making up the time before of after the auditor visits.

* Production outputting chemicals into the environment is ramped up prior to the event, then shut down during it (the dye plants temporarily stopped dumping into rovers during the Beijing Olympics).