New in the Lab: supplier confirmations for open purchase orders

Your ERP says a purchase order arrives on the 14th. That date is usually what the supplier said when the order was placed, and nobody has checked it since. Supplier confirmations, new in the Statadventure Optimization Lab, close that gap: suppliers confirm their open lines from one link, and the plan uses their answers.

How it works

1. Open Plan → Supplier confirmations. It lists every open purchase order line, by supplier.
2. Press Ask to confirm. The Lab makes a link to that supplier’s open lines, valid for 14, 30 or 60 days, for you to send by email.
3. The supplier opens the link on a computer or a phone, with no account and nothing to install. For each line they confirm it as asked, give a new date or quantity, or say they cannot supply it. They can change their answers until the link ends.
4. The answers come back into the Lab when the workspace opens, or straight away with Check for answers now.

What the plan does with the answers

The Replenishment planner, Predict & protect and Materials planning use the confirmed date and quantity instead of the ERP’s due date. A line the supplier cannot supply counts as not coming. Each line shows what its answer means, for example that the item now runs out before the order arrives, with the order the planner now suggests.

The Action center picks up what needs attention: lines answered late, short or not at all that now run out, suppliers to chase because they were asked more than three days ago, and lines due in the next 30 days that nobody has asked about yet.

Keeping your ERP up to date

Download the confirmed dates as a CSV to update promised dates in your ERP. If a supplier answers by phone or email instead, record the answer on the page and the plan uses it the same way.

Which plans include it

Supplier confirmations are on the Planner and Growth plans. They also work on the Lab’s sample purchase orders before you load any data, so you can try the steps first. See the plans.