Pyx Industries — RBA Digital Conformity Vocabulary

GoSource transformed RBA conformity schemes into a machine-readable vocabulary and digital credentials model for automated supply chain compliance verification.

Challenge

The Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) is the world’s largest industry coalition dedicated to responsible business conduct in global supply chains, with members including major hyperscalers (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon) and automotive brands. RBA operates two major conformity assessment programmes — the Validated Assessment Program (VAP) for labour, health & safety, and environmental standards, and the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP) for conflict minerals due diligence. These programmes were entirely paper-based: standards published as PDFs, audit results issued as paper certificates, and compliance verification performed through manual document exchange. In a world of complex, multi-tier global supply chains, this paper-based approach could not scale — verification was slow, error-prone, and impossible to automate across thousands of facilities and their downstream customers.

Pyx Industries engaged GoSource to transform RBA’s legacy conformity schemes into a fully digital, machine-readable framework that would enable automated compliance verification across global supply chains.

Solution

GoSource deployed a team of two senior practitioners with AI assistance over a two-month engagement, applying the same AI-assisted document transformation methodology used in enterprise architecture assessments — but directed at conformity scheme content rather than architecture artefacts.

• Conformity vocabulary extraction — Used AI-assisted analysis to systematically extract and structure all conformity content from RBA’s published standards (VAP and RMAP schemes) into a managed linked data vocabulary. The source material — hundreds of pages of PDF standards, audit criteria, and assessment methodologies — was ingested, decomposed, and mapped to a formal ontology.
• UNTP alignment — Grounded the vocabulary in the UN Transparency Protocol’s Conformity Vocabulary Catalog (CVC) specification, ensuring the digital vocabulary was interoperable with the emerging global standard for supply chain transparency. Every criterion, assessment level, and conformity topic was mapped to the UNTP CVC reference ontology.
• Digital conformity credentials — Designed and implemented the capability for RBA to issue machine-readable digital conformity credentials for each audited facility, following the UNTP Digital Conformity Credential (DCC) specification. This replaced paper certificates with cryptographically verifiable credentials that downstream buyers can validate automatically.
• Vocabulary deployment — Deployed the managed linked data conformity vocabulary as a live, queryable web resource, enabling programmatic access by RBA members and their supply chain partners.

Outcomes

• Paper to digital transformation — RBA’s conformity schemes transformed from static PDF standards and paper certificates to a fully digital, machine-readable framework
• Automated compliance verification — Downstream buyers can now verify facility conformity programmatically, replacing manual document exchange and verification
• UNTP interoperability — Vocabulary aligned to the UN Transparency Protocol, positioning RBA as an early adopter of the emerging global standard for digital supply chain transparency
• Digital conformity credentials — RBA can now issue verifiable digital credentials for each audited facility, following the UNTP DCC specification
• Industry demand — RBA’s key customers (major hyperscalers and global automotive brands) are sufficiently impressed by the capability that they want to roll it out across their broader supply chains
• Deployed and operational — Live conformity vocabulary deployed.

Technologies & Methods

• AI-assisted document extraction and structuring (same methodology as EA assessments)
• Linked data / semantic web (RDF, JSON-LD)
• UNTP Conformity Vocabulary Catalog (CVC) specification
• UNTP Digital Conformity Credential (DCC) specification
• W3C Verifiable Credentials
• Vocabulary management and web deployment
• PDF content ingestion and ontology mapping

Team Size

2 (senior practitioners with AI assistance) — 2 months