Ag Leader’s supply chain was a mess. On-time delivery hovered at 76%. Data was unreliable. Suppliers and buyers couldn’t get on the same page. Then something changed—and within months, on-time delivery hit 99%.
They’re not alone. Across industries, manufacturers are discovering that their ERP—no matter how sophisticated—can only take them so far. The real gains come from what happens between the ERP and the supplier.
We spent months compiling success stories from 13 manufacturers who figured this out. They use different ERPs. They make different products. But they all faced the same fundamental problem: procurement chaos was eating into their margins, and no amount of spreadsheet wrangling was going to fix it.
Here’s what they learned.
The Gap Nobody Talks About
There’s a dirty secret in manufacturing: even companies running world-class ERPs like Epicor, Infor, or NetSuite still find themselves buried in email chains, chasing down suppliers for updates, and scrambling when parts don’t show up on time.
The ERP is supposed to be the single source of truth. But the moment a purchase order leaves the building, that truth starts to decay. Suppliers confirm by email. Changes get lost. Dates slip. And by the time anyone notices, production is already affected.
This is the gap that was costing these 13 companies millions—in expedite fees, in excess inventory, in missed shipments, in warehouse space they didn’t need.
The Warehouse Expansion That Never Happened
BraunAbility makes mobility solutions—wheelchair-accessible vehicles and lifts that change people’s lives. As their business grew, so did their inventory problem. They were seriously planning a multi-million dollar warehouse expansion just to store all the components piling up.
Then they automated their supplier collaboration.
Within months, on-time delivery jumped 30%. On-hand inventory dropped 22%. And that warehouse expansion? Cancelled. They didn’t need it anymore.
“Before SourceDay, we were talking about a multi-million dollar expansion for warehouse space. Now we’ve reduced on-hand inventory by 22% and we’re actually looking at no longer storing production components at an offsite warehouse.”
Ben Hitchens, Associate Director of Procurement and Supply, BraunAbility
Chatsworth Products had a similar revelation. They were sitting on 8-9 days of work-in-process inventory, tying up cash and consuming warehouse space. After implementing real-time supplier collaboration, that dropped to 2-3 days. They reclaimed 90% of their warehousing space and converted it into manufacturing floor.
Think about that: warehouse space becoming production space. That’s not just efficiency—that’s capacity they didn’t have to build.
The $4 Million Invoice Problem
SPM Oil & Gas operates in one of the most volatile industries imaginable. Demand swings wildly. PO changes are constant. And for years, their invoice processing backlog sat at $6 million.
Six million dollars in limbo, creating friction with suppliers and uncertainty in the books.
After automating supplier collaboration and syncing everything with their Infor ERP in real time, that backlog dropped to $2 million. PO-to-invoice reconciliation got 70% faster. Their purchasing supervisor now shows the system to every new buyer on day one.
“It saves time and money and puts all the data in one place. Now it’s one of the first tools I show new buyers.”
Jessica Ross, Purchasing Supervisor, SPM Oil & Gas
When Communication Is the Real Problem
JBT AeroTech makes ground support equipment for airports—the kind of machinery that has to work, every time. They were struggling with chronic late deliveries and missing parts at production start. Nearly a third of their jobs started with something missing.
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They dug into the root cause and found something surprising: it wasn’t their suppliers’ capability. It was communication. Orders were getting lost. Changes weren’t being acknowledged. Nobody had a clear picture of what was actually coming and when.
Once they fixed the communication layer—giving both sides real-time visibility into every PO line—the numbers transformed. Supplier on-time delivery jumped from 68% to 89%. Missing parts at production start dropped from 31% to 8%. And inventory with one key supplier alone dropped by $800,000.
“When all was said and done, we found the #1 issue to be communication. Our suppliers weren’t communicating well with us; we weren’t communicating well with our suppliers.”
Terri Decker, Supply Chain Performance Manager, JBT AeroTech
The 1,200-Email Problem
Marine Layer is a sustainable apparel brand that expanded into wholesale. Great news for growth. Terrible news for their procurement team. PO volume tripled, and suddenly they were drowning in over 1,200 vendor emails per purchase order lifecycle.
Read that again: 1,200 emails. Per PO.
After automating PO updates and vendor communication, those multi-day manual tasks collapsed to 20 minutes. Data accuracy in NetSuite hit 100%. And the COO says they got near-instant payback on the investment—primarily in headcount they didn’t have to add.
“We unlocked a near-instant payback on our investment, primarily in man hours and additional staff we would have needed without SourceDay.”
Adam Lynch, COO, Marine Layer
What Actually Works: Six Patterns From 13 Companies
Looking across all these stories, six strategies show up again and again:
Automate the workflows, not just the data. It’s not enough to have information in your ERP. The back-and-forth with suppliers—acknowledgments, date changes, quantity updates—needs to flow automatically. Companies that did this saw up to 70% faster PO-to-invoice reconciliation.
Integrate deeply with your ERP. Surface-level connections create data silos. The companies that won made sure every change synced in real time, across every department. No more “which spreadsheet has the real numbers?”
Use AI to find what you’re missing. The best procurement teams are now using AI to analyze their data, spot patterns, and identify automation opportunities they wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
Turn data into supplier scorecards. When you can see which suppliers are performing and which aren’t—in real time—you can address problems before they hit production.
Meet suppliers where they are. Not every supplier wants to log into a portal. The most successful implementations offer multiple ways to engage: web portal, interactive emails, API, EDI, even flat file uploads. The easier you make it, the better your data gets.
Measure and share the wins. A 32% inventory reduction. 90% of warehouse space reclaimed. These numbers build internal support and momentum for continuous improvement.
The Real Lesson
None of these companies ripped out their ERP. They didn’t hire armies of new staff. They didn’t accept that procurement chaos was just the cost of doing business.
Instead, they closed the gap between their systems and their suppliers. They replaced email chaos with real-time collaboration. They turned procurement from a cost center into a competitive advantage.
And the results speak for themselves: 99% on-time delivery. 32% inventory reduction. Warehouse expansions cancelled. Millions in working capital freed up.
The technology exists. The playbook is proven. The only question is whether you’re ready to stop firefighting and start building a supply chain that actually works.
Get all 13 success stories with detailed metrics and the complete playbook for building a resilient supply chain.