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Value Chains

Every product in your catalog has a value chain: the network of suppliers, manufacturers, and producers that contributed to making it. Altana builds this network from four layers of data, starting with what you know about your direct suppliers and extending further upstream through the supply chain graph and supplier-verified records.

The four layers

Layer 1

Your data

The value chain starts with the data you provide about your products and suppliers. This data is structured using the Supply Chain Data Template (SCDT) and loaded into your catalog during onboarding with Altana's implementation team. It establishes T0 (your organization, always exactly one entity) and T1 (your direct suppliers: the companies that ship goods or components directly to you).

Layer 2

Supplier matching

Once your supplier records are in the catalog, Altana resolves each one against the global supply chain graph, a continuously updated network of over 530 million trade entities. Matching connects your supplier names and addresses to verified company and facility records in the graph, so the rest of your value chain can be traced from accurate starting points. Matched data writes back to your catalog only and is never shared with other organizations.

Layer 3

Suggested network generation

With your T1 suppliers resolved in the graph, Altana traces upstream to surface T2, T3, and deeper connections: the sub-suppliers your direct suppliers rely on. This process, suggested network generation, uses shipment frequency and trade history from the graph to identify the most likely upstream paths. The depth of the network trace is configurable.

Connections surfaced this way are suggested: Altana derived them from trade data, but no supplier has confirmed them. They give you visibility into the supply chain network; they are not audit-defensible traceability.

Suggested network generation is available on select subscription tiers.

Layer 4

Passport-verified data

When a supplier confirms their portion of the value chain through a Product Passport, those connections become verified. Verified connections overlay and supersede suggested ones for the same part of the network. Product Passports are the only way data is shared between organizations. A supplier's confirmed connections are shared with you through the passport, not inferred from trade records.

Suggested vs. confirmed

Every value chain connection in Altana is one of two things:

  • Suggested — Altana derived this connection from trade data in the supply chain graph. It represents what the data indicates, not what a supplier has attested to.
  • Confirmed — a user or supplier has attested to this connection. Confirmed connections supersede suggested ones.
Suggested connections give you visibility — a view of the upstream network inferred from trade flows. Confirmed connections give you traceability — supplier-attested data you can defend in an audit. Both appear in the value chain view, labeled by type.

Visibility vs. traceability

Visibility is what Altana can surface from trade data alone: the suggested network of upstream suppliers. It is broad but inferred. Traceability is what you can prove: connections that a supplier confirmed through a Product Passport or that you verified directly. Modern trade laws including the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) require traceability, not just visibility. The value chain model is designed so you can build toward traceability over time, starting from the visibility that suggested network generation provides.

What this looks like in practice

When you open a product's value chain in Altana, you see the full network: your T1 suppliers at the first tier, their sub-suppliers at T2 and beyond, and a distinction between suggested and confirmed connections at each tier. Connections sourced from Product Passports are marked as verified. You can use this view to identify which parts of your network are confirmed and which still depend on suggested data.

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