These can cause real problems for any automated system. The power of e-commerce is that the customer can take over entering their own orders, thereby reducing your cost to manage that order. To be able to make customer commitments, you must know the details and timing of your supply. As in Question 2, ask your current system to run a report of expected inbound materials in reverse due date order. Knowing what you owe your suppliers and how old that debt is can make all the difference in ensuring a continuous supply.
Suppliers can quickly stop inbound materials when payment terms are exceeded.
E-commerce can be expected to help your business penetrate into markets that cannot be economically served by you today. A win-win value proposition provides a more lasting beneficial relationship. If you have, your customer's loyalty will be based on more than just a mouse click. For a manufacturing company, not only do the in-coming supplier materials and the outgoing customer orders have to be accurate, the work in process in the plant has to be accurate as well. Most manufacturing facilities have weeks or months of inventory in process.