Supply Chain Due Diligence Practical Guide
Due Diligence Audit Guide (Abstract)
Audit Manual Based on OECD Due Diligence Guidance (2025 Edition)
For compliance practitioners in mining, manufacturing, procurement, trading, and retail industries | Bridging basics for beginners and advanced insights for professionals
Special note: Auditing is merely a means; promoting compliance is the ultimate goal. Therefore, this book strives to balance both the supplier's and the auditor's perspectives.
How to Use This Guide
This guide intentionally avoids repeating content abundantly available online—generic introductions to the OECD five-step framework, basic interpretations of regulations, or standard brand commitment statements can all be found on the official websites of the OECD, various standard-setting bodies, and in white papers from major ESG consulting firms.
This guide focuses on the parts where "framework documents tell you what to do, but not how to do it":
- What actual documents should look like.
- The "grey areas" in mineral supply chains—how information is diluted when ASM (Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining) miners enter the formal system through multiple layers of traders, and how to address this in practice.
- Risk Scoring—how to translate information from dozens of public databases into internal, actionable risk scores, rather than just leaving it as "reference material."
- Signal Weighting—how to determine the "weight" of information when multiple risk signals are triggered by the same supplier simultaneously, and which signal should be prioritized.
- Audit Preparation—how to prepare for and observe a mineral supply chain verification (including a specific list of documents to request from suppliers).
- Automation—how to use AI and automation tools to transition the entire system from manual-driven to semi-automated operation (Paid Content).
▌ Reading Path Recommendations: Beginners please start from Chapter 1...
(... Main Body Chapters ...)
Note: CSRD ESRS, ISSB IFRS S2, and TCFD are mutually independent yet highly convergent frameworks. Climate disclosures compliant with the TCFD framework generally meet the core requirements of IFRS S2 and cover the vast majority of ESRS E1 content. It is recommended to adopt a unified, integrated data collection process rather than establishing separate reporting processes for each framework.
Companion Templates for this Guide
Ready-to-Use Template Files
The following templates correspond directly to the contents of this guide and can be deployed immediately in your daily supply chain due diligence workflows:
| Template | Applicable Scenario in This Guide |
|---|---|
| Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC) Full Clauses | Supplier onboarding; Contract annex inclusion |
| Supplier Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) Full Set: Sections A-H | Annual supplier assessment; Onboarding review |
| Pre-Audit Document Request List (All Five Audit Types) | Comprehensive due diligence |
| Supplier Mineral Declaration / Non-Mineral Statement | Conflict mineral traceability (Chapter 6) |
| Financial Warning Escalation Request Form | Financial health monitoring |
| Corrective Action Plan (CAP) | Post-audit findings rectification |
Using AI to Assist Due Diligence Work
(This section covers methodologies for utilizing Large Language Models and automation scripts to process SAQs, extract data from unstructured supplier policies, and continuously monitor public databases for red flags.)