This guide provides an overview of commodities and commodity trees, essential concepts for understanding and utilizing our platform's capabilities. It explains their definitions, importance, and how they are used within our system.
What are Commodities?
In Prewave, a commodity refers to a raw material or primary product that can be monitored for supply chain risks. Commodities are critical components in various industries, typically classified using Harmonized System (HS) codes. These codes are globally standardized up to six digits, allowing for consistent identification and comparison of goods in international trade. Commodities can vary in breadth, representing a specific item like a car seat or a broader category like automotive parts.
Here are a couple of examples of commodities and their sub categories we’re working with at Prewave:
Vehicles and parts thereof:
Adhesives and sealants
Airbag
Brake system
Car lights
Car seat
Filters
Generator for engines
...
Or for Plastics and articles thereof:
Foams (Polyurethane, Latex, Memory, Closed-Cell)
Hydrocarbon Resin
PET Resin
Polyethylene (PE)
...
Or for Ores, slag and ash:
Conflict minerals
Copper
Gold ore
Iron ore
Lead
Manganese
…
The car seat commodity for example is a sub category of the vehicles and parts thereof commodity in Prewave:
What are Commodity Trees?
A commodity tree is a hierarchical structure that visually represents the various commodities involved in manufacturing a finished product. It starts with the final product at the top and branches down to its various components and sub-components, tracing the entire supply chain back to raw materials. Each node in the tree represents a commodity, linked to its corresponding HS code. You can get very granular with your research and also break down the components.
Car seat commodity tree in Prewave
Why are Commodity Trees Important?
Commodity trees serve several crucial purposes:
1. Supply Chain Visualization: They provide a clear and comprehensive view of all the components and suppliers involved in a product's supply chain.
2. Filtering and Analysis: Commodity trees enable users to filter and analyze supply chain data based on specific commodities or groups of commodities. This focused approach helps identify key suppliers and track the flow of goods.
Using Commodity Trees on the Platform
Without filters the customer will have trouble identifying what is important in the supply chain. Therefore, commodity trees are available in our platform as a commodity filter. After you have applied a commodity filter, only those suppliers are considered whose shipments include HS codes related to a relevant commodity in the tree.
Our platform allows you to apply commodity filters to collections in the network view in two ways:
· Permanent Filters: Located on the right-hand side of the screen, these filters are permanently applied to a collection, ensuring that the supply chain of the collection only includes companies within the selected commodity.
· Temporary Filters: Found on the left-hand side, these filters are applied temporarily for analytical purposes. They allow you to explore specific aspects of the data without permanently altering the collection's view.
Another possibility to filter for commodities is when being at a target profile of a supplier within the supplier tab and filter for HS codes directly.