Pull History -> Measure Slippage -> Score Reliability -> Set Band -> Flag Slippers

Supplier Lead-Time Reliability Agent

This agent compares promised delivery dates against when goods actually arrived, across your purchase history, and turns that into a reliability score per supplier and material. It gives buyers a realistic lead-time band instead of the number on the quote, and keeps a watchlist of suppliers that slip again and again. Buyers see the real picture before they commit a date.

The Problem

The supplier promised fourteen days. It always takes twenty-two. The schedule assumed fourteen.

A buyer raises a purchase order for a key raw material and the vendor confirms fourteen days. Planning builds the production schedule on that promise. The material shows up on day twenty-two, the same slip it has made on the last six orders, and the batch that was staged around it now waits. The promised date was never the real date, but nothing in the system said so.

What Changes

Buyers order against the lead time the supplier actually delivers.

The agent reads PO dates, promised dates, and goods-receipt dates from your ERP and computes how far each supplier slips per material. It turns that into a reliability score and a realistic lead-time band, and flags chronic slippers on a watchlist. Buyers get the honest number before they commit a date to planning.

Humans stay in control: the agent scores reliability and suggests a lead-time band, but the buyer decides what date to promise and where to place the order.

HOW THE AGENT WORKS

TRIGGERLLMAPIDECISIONACTIONWAIT

TRIGGERScheduled reliability runRuns on a schedule to recompute supplier reliability.

APIPull order timing historyReads PO dates, promised dates, and goods-receipt dates per line.

APIPull material and vendor mastersLoads material categories and vendor default lead times.

APICalculate slippage metricsComputes on-time rate, average slip, and variance per supplier and material.

LLMScore reliability and bandTurns the metrics into a reliability score and a realistic lead-time band.

DECISIONChronic slipper?

ACTIONPublish scorecard and watchlistSends the scores and the chronic-slipper watchlist to buyers.

The agent does not place orders or change dates. Your buyer does. The agent removes the guesswork about which supplier promises hold and which do not.

HOW TO BUILD IT

Three levels of depth. Pick the one that matches where you are.

For the ops person who needs to understand what's involved and brief their team.

ERP purchasing historyPO, promise, and receipt dates

The AgentWorkflow engine + LLM

BuyersUse scores when ordering

WHAT YOUR TEAM PROVIDES ONCE

Purchase order history - PO date, promised date, actual goods-receipt date per line
Material master - the items you buy and their categories
Vendor master - the suppliers and their default lead times
Scoring rules - how reliability and the lead-time band are defined
Notification channel - where buyers receive the scorecard and watchlist

What happens day-to-day: on a schedule the agent reads your purchase history and compares promised dates to actual receipts per supplier and material. It updates a reliability score and a lead-time band, and refreshes the watchlist of chronic slippers. Buyers open the scorecard before they promise a date, and planning stops building on numbers that never hold.

For the IT person or technical lead who needs to scope the integration.

INQUIRY SOURCES

Purchasing history: PO date, promised date, and actual goods-receipt date per line.

Material master: the items purchased and their categories.

Vendor master: the suppliers and their default lead times.

WORKFLOW ENGINE (N8N)

Scheduled reliability run

Pull PO, promise, and receipt dates

Pull material and vendor masters

Calculate lead time and variance

Score reliability and set band

Chronic slipper

Publish scorecard and watchlist

CONNECTS TO

ERP purchasing (SAP / Oracle / Microsoft Dynamics)Read: PO, promised, and goods-receipt dates. Write: nothing

Material master (SAP / Oracle)Read: items and categories. Write: nothing

Vendor master (SAP / Oracle)Read: suppliers and default lead times. Write: nothing

Notification (Slack / Teams / Email)Read: nothing. Write: scorecard and watchlist to buyers

WITHOUT PMS API

Without API access, the agent runs on a purchasing export you provide and returns a scorecard and watchlist your buyers read alongside the ERP. More manual, but the same reliability picture and the buyer still decides the date.

WITH PMS API

With API access to your ERP, the agent refreshes reliability scores and lead-time bands on a schedule and pushes them to buyers where they place orders. The realistic number is there before a date is promised. Best experience.

For the person who wants to build this agent step by step. Each node below maps to an n8n workflow node.

TRIGGERNode 1

Trigger - runs the reliability calculation on a schedule

Schedule, for example weekly, to recompute reliability.

Output: A reliability run.

APINode 2

API - pulls PO, promise, and goods-receipt dates

GET PO date, promised date, and goods-receipt date per line for the window.

Output: Order timing history per line.

APINode 3

API - pulls material and vendor masters

GET material and vendor masters for names and default lead times.

Output: Material and vendor context.

APINode 4

API - calculates slippage per supplier and material

Compute on-time rate, average slip, and variance per supplier and material.

Output: Slippage metrics per supplier and material.

LLMNode 5

LLM - sets a reliability score and lead-time band

Send the metrics; ask for a reliability score, band, and note per pair.

Output: A reliability score and lead-time band per supplier and material.

You are a procurement reliability analyst. From the slippage metrics, set a reliability score and a realistic lead-time band per supplier and material.

Metrics: {metrics}

Give a reliability score from 0 to 100, a lead-time band in days, and a one-line note per pair. Respond ONLY with valid JSON. No explanation.

INPUT

{"metrics":[{"supplier":"Vendor-A","material":"MAT-501","promised_days":14,"avg_actual_days":22,"on_time_rate":0.68}]}

OUTPUT

{"scores":[{"supplier":"Vendor-A","material":"MAT-501","reliability_score":72,"on_time_rate":0.68,"lead_time_band_days":"18-27","note":"Promises 14 days, delivers 22 on average"}]}

ACTIONNode 6

Action - publishes the scorecard and watchlist to buyers

Publish the scorecard and chronic-slipper watchlist to buyers.

Output: A scorecard and watchlist for buyers.

MVP vs Advanced — Where To Start

MVP — START HERE

Start with your top twenty materials by spend.
Use PO, promise, and receipt dates from a single export.
Report on-time rate and average slip before scoring.
Send a simple scorecard to buyers, with no ERP write.
Have buyers sanity-check the bands against what they know.
Log where the agent's band beat the quoted date.

ADVANCED — ADD LATER

Cover all materials and every active supplier.
Weight recent orders more than old ones in the score.
Split lead time by order size and season.
Push the band into the buyer's ordering screen.
Alert planning when a chronic slipper is on a critical path.
=+ Feed actual receipts back to refine each supplier's band over time.

Full Video Walkthrough Coming Soon

Watch the agent turn purchase history into a reliability score and a realistic lead-time band.

Everything on this page is free to learn.

When you're ready to build — do it yourself or bring us in.

Book a call to scope this

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Frequently asked questions

Supplier Lead-Time Reliability Agent is an AI agent that scores supplier reliability and gives buyers a realistic lead time.

The supplier promised fourteen days. It always takes twenty-two. The schedule assumed fourteen. The Supplier Lead-Time Reliability Agent addresses this: scores supplier reliability and gives buyers a realistic lead time.

No. Your team stays in control. The agent does not place orders or change dates. Your buyer does. The agent removes the guesswork about which supplier promises hold and which do not.

This is 3 of 4 agents in Procurement & Purchasing. → · Explore all 15 departments →