How to Manage Suppliers and Approvals. One Owner, One Date, One Place.
From approving a new factory to signing off samples and quotes, here is how brands manage suppliers and approvals without losing track in email and WhatsApp.
Supplier and approval management is how a brand chooses, approves and works with the factories and mills that make its products, and how it signs off each step those suppliers deliver: quotes, materials, samples and orders. To do it well, use a clear process to approve new suppliers, give every approval an owner and a due date, and keep all supplier communication and documents on the product they belong to.
When approvals wait in inboxes, suppliers chase answers over WhatsApp, so nobody can say where a product is stuck. Done well, each supplier knows what is needed, by when, and from whom.
Key takeaways
- There are two kinds of approval: approving a supplier to work with you, and approving what the supplier sends you.
- Approve new factories with the same checklist every time: capability, quality, compliance, capacity and commercial terms.
- Every approval needs one owner, a due date and a written decision.
- Keep supplier conversations on the quote, product or order they are about, not in separate email and chat threads.
- Give each supplier access to their own products and orders only.
Two kinds of approval. Different rhythms.
The phrase "supplier approval" covers two different jobs.
Supplier (factory) approval is deciding whether a new factory, mill or component supplier can make products for you. This happens once, then is reviewed from time to time.
Development approvals are signing off what an approved supplier sends during product development: quotes, lab dips, materials, samples, packaging and the final purchase order. These happen for every product, every season.
Both need a clear process. Most delays come from the second kind, because there are so many of them.
One checklist. Every new factory.
Use the same steps for every new supplier, so decisions are fair and easy to compare:
- Define what you need. Product category, materials, techniques, quantities, quality level, lead times and target cost.
- Shortlist suppliers. Use referrals, trade fairs and sourcing agents to find suppliers that make similar products.
- Collect a supplier profile. Company details, products made, machines and capacity, main customers, minimum order quantities and lead times.
- Check compliance. Ask for certificates, audit reports and policies that matter to your brand and markets, such as social, environmental and product safety standards.
- Visit or audit. Visit the factory yourself or use a third-party audit to check working conditions, quality systems and capacity.
- Run a trial. Send a tech pack for a test sample and ask for a quote. This shows how well the supplier reads your specs and how fast they respond.
- Agree terms. Prices, payment terms, lead times, quality standards and what happens when goods fail inspection.
- Record the decision. Mark the supplier as approved for specific categories, keep their documents on file and set a date to review them.
Six gates. Every product passes them.
Once a supplier is approved, a typical fashion or consumer product passes these approval gates:
- Quote approval. The supplier's price is checked against the target cost.
- Material and colour approvals. Fabrics, components and lab dips are checked against your standards.
- Sample approvals. Proto, fit and pre-production samples are reviewed against the spec. See how to reduce sampling rounds for ways to get there faster.
- Packaging and artwork approval. Labels, packaging and printed artwork are signed off.
- Compliance approval. Test reports and certificates for the product are checked and filed.
- Purchase order and production approval. The final order is confirmed, and bulk production is checked before shipping.
A time and action calendar (the season plan of every task and its date) sets the dates for each of these gates. Read our guide to the time and action calendar.
Five things teams say about suppliers. And what is behind them.
Several people gave feedback and none of them had the final say, so the supplier got conflicting answers.
Name one owner per approval. Many people can comment, but one person decides.
The question went into email and a WhatsApp group at once, so nobody knew where to answer.
Keep one place per topic: a quote on the quote, a sample on the product, a delivery on the order. Our guide on product data in email and WhatsApp shows how to bring it back into one place.
The approval was in someone's inbox, so nobody knew it was waiting until the supplier chased it.
Set a due date for every step, on your side as well as the supplier's. Late approvals from the brand delay products as much as late samples.
Documents were stored apart from the product, so nobody can find them when asked.
Keep certificates and test reports with the product and the supplier they belong to.
Files were shared in a common folder, so suppliers saw files or prices that were not meant for them.
Control what each supplier sees: their own products and orders, not your whole range or other suppliers' prices.
Decide in writing. Keep the history.
A few habits keep approvals moving, whatever tool you use:
- Write the decision down. Approved, approved with comments, or rejected, with the reason and the date.
- Follow every call with a note. Written beats spoken, so record what was agreed.
- Share the current version only. Send the latest spec, and make clear which earlier versions it replaces.
- Keep the history. Record who approved what and when, so later questions are answered quickly.
- Make status visible. Everyone should see which products are waiting, on whom, and for how long.
- Review the process each season. Look at where approvals waited longest and fix those steps first.
When product decisions live in personal inboxes and chat groups, they are lost when people change roles.
Follow one new factory. From shortlist to first order.
Imagine Daniel, sourcing lead at a homeware brand, adding a new ceramics factory. For example:
- He uses his usual new-factory checklist.
- The factory's profile, certificates and audit report are filed with the supplier record.
- A trial tech pack goes out, and the sample and quote come back on the product, not in email.
- Each gate has one owner and a date, so Daniel can see the glaze approval is waiting on his own team.
- The factory is approved for tableware only, with a review date.
Think of it as one shared record you and your suppliers both check before anyone acts. With a few suppliers, a spreadsheet, shared folders and email may be enough for now. With many suppliers in several countries, it is hard to see which approvals are open and who said what. A PLM (product lifecycle management) system keeps suppliers, their conversations and every approval on the product record. If you are new to PLM, read what PLM is.
How Polluxa helps
Polluxa PLM is product lifecycle management software for fashion, footwear, beauty, consumer goods and manufacturing brands. It brings your teams and suppliers onto one shared record for each product.
- Supplier talk no longer scatters across apps. With Vendor Management, you talk to internal and external stakeholders by quote, by product or by order.
- Suppliers no longer see more than they should. Role-based access and supplier-safe sharing mean suppliers see only the quotes, products and orders you share.
- Approvals no longer wait in inboxes. Task and Workflow Management sends each step to the right person with a due date, with stages that match your process and no code.
- Decisions and certificates no longer go missing. The audit log records every change with who, what and when, and certificates are stored with the product they belong to.
Read more about our PLM software for consumer brands.
Start this week
- List every approval waiting on your own team today, and give each one an owner and a date.
- Write your new-factory checklist on one page, using the eight steps above.
- For one live product, move the supplier conversation out of email and WhatsApp into one written thread.
When you want to see how your suppliers would work with you, book a demo.
Frequently asked questions
It is the set of steps a brand uses to decide whether a new supplier can make its products. It usually covers capability, quality, compliance, capacity, a trial sample and commercial terms, ending with a recorded decision.
Define what you need, collect the factory's profile and certificates, visit or audit the site, run a trial sample and quote, and agree terms. Record the approval for specific product categories and set a date to review it.
It depends on the stage. Design usually approves the look, technical teams approve fit and construction, and quality approves pre-production and bulk. Agree one final decision maker for each approval.
Give each approval an owner, a due date and a status, and keep it on the product record with its comments and documents. A shared view of open approvals shows where products are waiting.
In most companies the terms mean the same thing: choosing, approving and working with the businesses that supply your products, materials and services. Some teams use "vendor" for any outside seller and "supplier" for production partners.
