Manufacturing Solutions That Start With Your Suppliers
Manufacturing solutions from SPS Commerce automate purchase orders, acknowledgements, shipment updates, and invoices with your suppliers. With 750 million transactions flowing through our network annually, SPS can validate supplier data before it reaches your team, so procurement stops chasing and receiving plans ahead.
The Challenges Manufacturers Face Across Today’s Supply Chain
Running a manufacturing supply chain is harder than ever. Manual processes slow you down. Visibility gaps disrupt planning and production. Supply chain delays and process bottlenecks strain cash flow. Leading manufacturers eliminate manual data entry, standardize supplier processes, automate procure-to-pay workflows, and gain real-time insights into inbound materials.
How? Partner with SPS Commerce.
The only network-enabled supply chain solution that connects you and your suppliers in one place – so you can orchestrate work, gain visibility, and manage relationships with confidence.
Why Is My Team Still Chasing Supplier Acknowledgements?
SPS helps you tackle the challenges that disrupt your supply chain and impact margins.
The Acknowledgement Never Comes.
You sent the PO and now you are waiting. Your supplier has not acknowledged the order, so procurement follows up by phone and email while production asks for a date your team cannot confirm yet.
Inbound Shipment Status Lives in an Email Thread
Nobody knows what is arriving until it hits the dock. Planning builds around guesses, receiving reconstructs the paperwork by hand, and buffer stock becomes the fallback for every gap in inbound information.
Invoices That Do Not Match, Integrations Nobody Wants
Your controller is holding an invoice that does not match the PO, and IT is asked to build one more supplier integration to maintain. That is the procure-to-pay process without connected supplier data.
Manufacturers and Brands That Run on SPS Commerce
Trusted by:
%
Procurement productivity improvement
%
Reduction in receiving effort
What Manufacturers and Brands Say About SPS Commerce
What Changes for Procurement, Receiving, and Inventory After Automation?
The figures below are composite modeled outcomes from Forrester, paired with what buying organizations reported directly in the SPS Commerce Customer Impact Study.
| Workflow | What changes | Modeled outcome (1) | Customer-reported (2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Procurement | Less chasing, follow-up, and supplier exception work | 40% productivity improvement | 89% reported reduced operational burden managing suppliers |
| Receiving | More advance notice, less dock-side reconstruction | 42% reduction in receiving effort | 91% reported fewer supplier errors and disruptions |
| Inventory | Better inbound signals before demand is affected | 5% reduction in stockouts | 82% reported reduced out-of-stocks |
- Sourced from “The Total Economic Impact™ Study of SPS Commerce,” a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SPS Commerce, 2025.
- Results are based on aggregated data from interviews with ten Retailer, Grocer, and Distributor customers for a composite organization.
Why Supplier Automation Runs on the SPS Network
Purchase Order Acknowledgement Automation
Send a PO, get an acknowledgement back. Automated order acknowledgements tell your team the order is on track, and surface the exceptions early when it is not, so procurement works from commitments rather than assumptions.
Inbound Shipment Visibility Without the Calls
When your supplier ships, you know. Shipment status maps directly to your production schedule, so planning moves ahead of the problem and receiving knows what is coming to the dock before it arrives.
Three-Way Match Data That Ends the Invoice Hunt
SPS standardizes and delivers the purchase order, acknowledgement, shipment notice, and invoice data your ERP needs for three-way matching. Discrepancies are easier to investigate, and early-payment terms are less likely to slip away.
Supplier Onboarding Run by SPS, Not Your Team
SPS handles outreach, onboarding, testing, training, and support for direct suppliers, indirect suppliers, and co-manufacturers. More than 1,000 onboarding programs mean new supplier connections take days rather than months.
get started
Ready to Stop Chasing Suppliers and Keep Production on Schedule?
Learn how you can gain real-time visibility into your supply chain and improve supplier collaboration.
SPS brings the data, decisions, and relationships together so the right product gets to the right place at the right time. Every time.
Connect
Manufacturing Supply Chain Relationship Management
SPS onboards, tests, and certifies your entire supplier community. Connectivity is the foundation every later layer depends on, and SPS owns it.
Orchestrate
Fulfillment
Automates order-to-invoice with your customers. Runs alongside Manufacturing Supply Chain Relationship Management so both sides share one network.
Optimize
Analytics
Turns sell-through and inventory data into demand and production decisions. The natural next add-on once your supplier transactions are automated.
Manufacturing Supply Chain Questions, Answered
Do my suppliers have to be onboarded by my team?
No. SPS Commerce runs it on your behalf. SPS handles outreach, onboarding, testing, training, and ongoing support for direct suppliers, indirect suppliers, and co-manufacturers, working with each one regardless of size or technical maturity. Whether a supplier is EDI-capable, API-ready, or still sending orders by email and spreadsheet, there is a path to connect them.
What does SPS automate on the buy side and the sell side?
Buy side: outbound purchase orders to your suppliers, change requests, acknowledgements, inbound shipment notices, supplier invoices, and three-way match data across your supplier and co-manufacturing community.
Sell side: inbound customer orders, order acknowledgements, shipment notices, shipping labels, and invoices for retailers, distributors, and grocers. Our network covers both.
How does SPS work with my ERP?
ERP manufacturing solutions manage production, inventory, and financials well. They were never built to manage how hundreds of suppliers each prefer to communicate. SPS connects through API, AS2, FTP, or VAN with 400+ system partnerships including SAP, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Acumatica, and Sage. Your system of record stays clean, and supplier connectivity stops being an internal project.
How long does it take to connect a new supplier?
Once your buying organization is connected to the network, adding a new supplier connection typically takes days rather than months. SPS has run more than 1,000 supplier onboarding programs, so your rollout starts with tested outreach, connection, and training practices. The sequence is tailored to your supplier community and business priorities. 150+ dedicated specialists support that work.
What does a lean manufacturing supply chain require from suppliers?
Reliable inbound information and a procure-to-pay process that does not depend on manual follow-up. Whether you make to stock or make to order, materials need to arrive when the production schedule expects them. Without confirmed supplier data, procurement spends its day chasing acknowledgements and shipment updates, while buffer stock covers the uncertainty.
Are my retail customers already in the SPS network?
Likely yes. Seven of the top 10 U.S. retailers are already in the network, and two-thirds of the fastest-growing brands run on SPS Commerce. That means the sell-side connections you need are often in place before you ask for them, across 300,000 trading relationships and 750 million transactions a year. Requirements are updated once across the network, not once per integration.