Supplier Performance Agent
Turns 'they are always late' into what it cost you
- 8hard rules
- Things it must never do, enforced in every run
- 5handover rules
- Conditions where it stops and gives the work to a person
- 7output fields
- A structured result, not a paragraph you have to re-read
- ≤6steps per run
- Bounded work: at most 4 tool calls, enforced by the runtime
Read-only by design. This agent has no path to sending, spending, publishing or committing anything. Where that limit is the product, removing it would remove the reason to trust the output.
Overview
Every operations team knows which supplier is the problem. What they lack is evidence, and without it the quarterly review is two people exchanging impressions while the supplier's account manager wins on confidence.
The data exists — receipts, delivery notes, quality rejections, invoices — but it sits across systems and nobody assembles it, so the conversation runs on anecdote. Anecdote is biased toward whatever went wrong most recently rather than what costs most.
The number that changes the conversation is not on-time delivery. It is what the failures cost: the line that stopped, the expedited freight to cover a late delivery, the rework on rejected material, the second order placed because the first was short. A supplier who is cheapest per unit and causes three line stops a quarter is the most expensive supplier you have, and no price comparison will ever show it.
This agent assembles that picture per supplier, prices the failures where the records allow, tracks price drift against the agreed rate, and separately reports concentration — which suppliers you could not replace quickly. That last one is invisible until the day it matters, and on that day it is the only thing that does.
It contacts no supplier and ends no relationship. It gives you the evidence to hold a real review.
Benefits
A review with evidence
Rather than impressions against a confident account manager.
True cost per supplier
Which frequently reverses the ranking price alone produces.
Concentration seen early
While there is still time to qualify an alternative.
What it does
Prices the failure, not the delay
Expedited freight, rework, a stopped line. The cheapest supplier per unit is often the most expensive one you have.
On-time and in-full, measured separately
A delivery that arrived on the day and short is not on time in any sense that helps you.
Tracks price drift against the agreement
Small increases that never triggered a review because each one was small.
Names concentration risk
Which suppliers you could not replace quickly. Invisible until the day it is the only thing that matters.
Evidence per claim
Every finding traces to receipts and records, so the review stops running on anecdote.
Contacts nobody
Supplier relationships are commercial and long-term. It arms the conversation; it does not have it.
What this changes
What this changes about your week
- It takes over
- Assembling delivery, quality and price evidence before a supplier review.
- Done today by
- Nobody, so the review runs on whoever remembers the most recent failure.
- How often
- Quarterly, and it decides next year's contract.
- Typical manual effort
- The data is spread across receipts, rejections and invoices in different systems.
Why Procurement in particular. On-time delivery is the wrong number. What matters is what the failures cost — expediting, rework, a stopped line — and that routinely reverses the ranking that unit price produces.
Runs unattended
Started by you or by an event, and it finishes on its own. Nothing waits for someone to be at a desk.
The same standard every time
The two-hundredth item is held to the bar the first one was. Consistency is the part people cannot sustain.
It cannot act on its own
Supplier Performance Agent has no path to sending, spending or committing. That limit is why its output is safe to act on.
How it runs
This agent runs server-side through the PROMIVO runtime. Each run is logged step by step and every tool call is permission-checked before it executes.
- 1InputValidated against the agent input schema
- 2Modelclaude-sonnet-5 with automatic fallback
- 3Toolsextract_structured_data
- 4PermissionsRuns READ actions automatically; anything higher waits for approval
- 5OutputStructured result matching the output schema
- 6LoggingTokens, duration and every step recorded
Demo
Demo dataIllustrative sample output, abridged.
Input
{
"orders": [],
"period": "Q3 2026",
"currency": "USD",
"concentrationThresholdPercent": 40
}Output
{
"escalate": true,
"suppliers": [
{
"spend": 480000,
"evidence": [
"14 short deliveries against PO-4412 through PO-4680.",
"Three expedited freight charges totalling 21,400 raised to cover them."
],
"supplier": "Supplier A",
"failureCost": 96000,
"inFullPercent": 74,
"onTimePercent": 91,
"rejectionRate": 2.1,
"totalCostRank": 3,
"priceDriftPercent": 11.4,
"failureCostQuantified": true,
"onTimeAndInFullPercent": 69
}
],
"disclaimer": "An analysis of your own records. No supplier has been contacted, no order changed, no termination recommended, and failure costs are only reported where a record supports them — the rest is reported as frequency.",
"concentration": [
{
"category": "Machined housings",
"supplier": "Supplier B",
"whatStops": "Assembly stops within 9 days of a supply failure. No second source is qualified.",
"sharePercent": 78,
"alternativeQualified": false
}
],
"performingWell": [
"Supplier C: 98% on time and in full, no rejections, no price drift. Worth more volume, and nobody has ever said so in a review."
],
"couldNotQuantify": [
"Line stoppage cost for 6 events — the duration was recorded but no cost rate exists, so frequency is reported without a figure."
],
"escalationReason": "Supplier A's failures cost 96,000 against 480,000 of spend, and Supplier B holds 78% of a critical category with no qualified alternative."
}Requirements
Integrations
No integrations required.
Before you start
- Purchase orders and receipts with promised and actual dates and quantities
- Quality rejections and returns
- Agreed prices, and invoiced prices over time
- Costs of expediting, rework or stoppages, where you record them
- Requires the All-Access plan or higher
Use cases
Quarterly business review
The numbers and the evidence, prepared.
Before a contract renewal
Performance priced, not described.
Supplier consolidation
Which to keep on total cost rather than unit price.
Continuity planning
Where a single failure would stop you.
Pricing
All-Access
Billed monthly through your PROMIVO subscription. Cancel at any time.
Runs consume your plan allowance for agent executions and tokens. See plan limits
FAQ
Will it end a supplier relationship?
No. It contacts nobody and recommends no termination. Switching supplier carries qualification, tooling and continuity risk this cannot see.
What if we do not record the cost of failures?
Then it reports frequency and says the cost could not be quantified, rather than estimating. An invented cost figure would be the most quotable and least defensible thing in the report.
Does it rank suppliers?
It ranks them on measured total cost where the data supports it, and says where it does not. A single score across incomparable categories would be decoration.
Reviews
Reviews open once customers have run this agent.
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