Where the ERP stops
The ERP knows the purchase order, the promised date and the stock level. It doesn’t chase the supplier when the date slips, ask quality whether a substitute part is acceptable, or tell the line supervisor when the part will actually arrive. That work happens in email and spreadsheets, and every site does it a little differently.
Two examples most plants will recognize.
An off-catalog part. A maintenance supervisor needs a replacement bearing that isn’t in the catalog. She emails purchasing a photo and a part number. Purchasing asks for a cost center, then a quote, then approval because it’s over the threshold, then creates the PO in SAP. The line has been down for two days when the PO goes out.
A late shipment. A supplier emails that a component will ship a week late. The buyer reads it on Thursday, works out which orders it affects, and emails planning. Planning emails the plant. Nobody updates the promised date in the ERP, so the dashboard still says on time.
Each item gets an owner and a deadline
With Kinetic, the supervisor fills in a request form with the part, the photo, the machine and the urgency. AI pulls the part details from the photo and description. The request routes by value and site: under the threshold straight to purchasing, over it to the plant manager first. A quote request goes to two suppliers through the supplier portal at the same time. When one is accepted, the PO is created in SAP with the request attached.
For the late shipment, the supplier enters the new date in the portal, or emails it and AI extracts it for the buyer to confirm. Kinetic finds the affected orders in the ERP, opens an exception with the buyer as owner and notifies planning and the plant. The new date is written back to SAP once the buyer accepts it. If nobody acts by the deadline, the exception escalates.
What doesn’t change
SAP, Oracle or Dynamics stays the system of record for orders, stock and suppliers. Coupa or Ariba stays the procurement platform if you run one. Kinetic covers the requests, exceptions and supplier conversations in between, and every one of them leaves a record.
Supplier onboarding, with insurance, tax forms and site access, follows the same pattern; see vendor and contractor onboarding. Paper forms on the plant floor are candidates for form automation, and exceptions triggered by warehouse data are covered under data to action.