Modernizing Compliance: How Donaldson Streamlined UFLPA And Sanctions Risk Management

Forced labor and sanctions risk management in complex supply chains 

Donaldson Company is a global leader in advanced filtration systems, with a complex supply chain spanning multiple industries and jurisdictions. Guiding this operation is the Global Trade Compliance team, responsible for keeping goods moving while ensuring adherence to a fast-evolving landscape of international regulations. From export controls and free trade agreement opportunities to denied party screening, the team relies on e2open and Kharon to help protect operational continuity and brand integrity.

To keep pace with increasing regulatory demands regarding forced labor enforcement under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), the team initially turned to a third-party platform. They quickly learned they needed more than access to raw data–they needed actionable insights that could scale with the complexity of their operations.

Initial approach: high data volume, low decision confidence

To address early screening needs around UFLPA exposure, Donaldson implemented a third-party data platform that offered broad access to open-source corporate records and ownership data. The solution was initially a fit due to its stated coverage and entry-level cost, but as the team’s due diligence needs expanded, it quickly showed its limitations, falling short on delivering decision-ready intelligence.

The platform often produced hundreds of loosely connected results for a single query, many of which lacked relevance or actionable context. Team members were forced to spend hours deciphering fragmented records and long ownership chains, without clear prioritization of which relationships truly mattered for exposure to forced labor risk under the UFLPA. 

This created friction in workflows, delayed decisions, and made it increasingly difficult to keep pace with the speed and complexity of evolving compliance expectations.

Building on a proven foundation

Donaldson had already seen the value of Kharon’s sanctions-related data through its use of its 50-Plus dataset via the e2open global trade platform, which identifies entities with majority ownership (50% or more) by sanctioned actors, particularly in high-risk jurisdictions like Russia and Belarus. That success reinforced trust in both the reliability of the platform and Kharon’s ability to uncover meaningful insights into entities linked to sanctioned actors.

As the limitations of their initial forced labor data provider became clearer, Donaldson turned to Kharon to strengthen their UFLPA risk management efforts. The team implemented Kharon’s Forced Labor dataset, used in tandem with the Kharon LensView visualization tool, to gain access to analyst-backed intelligence, which provided clear, actionable connections between supply chain actors and forced labor risk.

Unlike raw data feeds, Kharon provided contextualized analysis, enabling the team to quickly identify risks linked to activity in Xinjiang, even when suppliers operated outside of China. This significantly improved their ability to triage and respond to forced labor risk in a way that aligned with evolving UFLPA enforcement expectations.

Integration and time savings

Donaldson integrated Kharon’s Forced Labor dataset directly into its existing global trade management system, e2open, allowing analysts to operationalize screening insights at scale.

Without Kharon, the team estimates that over the course of one week, a detailed review of this nature would’ve taken 80 hours of labor-intensive work across multiple sources of information.

With the integration in place, the same review was completed in just 16 hours, freeing up time and resources for other priorities.

In addition to reducing manual workload, the integration enabled real-time screening across their supplier base and supported clear documentation for audit and escalation. Kharon’s network visualization capabilities helped the team distill complex ownership and risk relationships into clear, shareable outputs–accelerating procurement decisions and improving alignment with company leadership.

Elevating supply chain compliance from operational to strategic

Empowered by clearer, more actionable insights, Donaldson’s compliance team has expanded its impact, taking on more strategic initiatives and partnering across the business to proactively manage risk. With a foundation of trust and efficiency in place, they’re leading the charge in adapting to new regulatory challenges with speed and confidence.

The timing of this shift has been critical. As the trade environment evolves and new tariff considerations emerge, the team has used Kharon to adapt with significantly greater agility, providing quick-turn analysis and maintaining confidence in their regulatory posture across both sanctions and UFLPA enforcement areas.

The results: trusted intelligence, tangible impact

With Kharon and e2open’s combined solution, Donaldson has moved from fragmented, manual screening to a streamlined, intelligence-led approach. By combining sanctions risk and forced labor due diligence into a single, integrated platform, the team can identify, escalate, and mitigate risk with speed and confidence.

Kharon has become an essential part of Donaldson’s global trade compliance program–providing clarity where it’s most needed and empowering the team to thrive amid regulatory complexity.

Make smarter, faster decisions on forced labor risk.

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