> Could S.C.M. software include a “workers’-rights” component—a counterpart to PP/DS, incorporating data on working conditions?

That exists, it is called compliance software, and usually serves as an input (of constraints) to the SCM. It might be labor compliance (hours worked, breaks, etc.), it might be food safety compliance (max temperature, max time in storage, etc.), drug compliance, etc.

The article is a bit of a joke, it reads like assigning a humanities professor to report on resource optimization techniques.

Oh, wait, that's exactly what the article is!

But well, it is the New Yorker, no reason to expect something different.