MFG Empire | Marketing Built for Manufacturers, York, Pennsylvania
One number measures how buyers rate their suppliers right now. It has moved the wrong way for eight straight months. It is not a marketing statistic. It is compiled from the people who sign purchase orders.
What does the ISM Supplier Deliveries Index actually measure?
Each month the Institute for Supply Management asks manufacturing supply executives one question about their suppliers. Did deliveries come in slower, faster, or about the same? The answers become the Supplier Deliveries Index.
That index runs inverted, unlike every other index in the ISM report. A reading above 50 percent means deliveries got slower. It is a direct record of buyers grading supplier performance.
How long have supplier deliveries been slowing?
Eight months and counting. ISM reported on 3 August 2026 that the Supplier Deliveries Index registered 58.9 percent in July. That is up 1.5 points from 57.4 percent in June. That marked slowing performance for the eighth month in a row, after a single month in faster territory.
The rest of the July report shows why buyers are paying attention. The Manufacturing PMI reached 55.6 percent, the highest since May 2022. Production jumped 6.3 points to 58.5 percent, its highest since November 2021, and no industry reported a decrease in production.
Backlog of Orders climbed to 55.0 percent from 50.5 percent. Customers’ inventories sat at 40.7 percent, well inside the range ISM classifies as too low. The wider supply picture behind those readings is covered in why material shortages are slowing manufacturing output.
Cost is running alongside it. The ISM Prices Index registered 71.1 percent in July, and New Orders held at 56.7 percent. The overall economy has expanded for 21 consecutive months.
That combination is the pressure point. Buyers need parts, their own shelves are thin, their input costs are climbing, and their suppliers keep running late.
What happens inside a buying organization when a date slips?
A buyer facing a missed promise date has three moves, and only three. Wait and absorb the delay. Expedite, which usually means paying for it. Or find another supplier.
The first two cost the buyer money or schedule. The third costs the buyer time up front and then removes the problem permanently. The pick depends on program slack and on how easily the part can be resourced.
None of that is a judgment about the shop’s work. A part can be perfect and still arrive late, and the buyer still has a line down.
Does one late job cost a shop the account?
No public dataset answers that question. ISM measures delivery performance in aggregate, not individual supplier decisions. No survey tracks how many misses precede a resourcing decision.
What can be said is structural. A sole-source part with tooling, a first article on file, and a qualified process is expensive to move. A commodity part with three qualified alternates is not.
The exposure sits in how replaceable the work is, not in how many times a date has slipped.
What does requalifying a supplier involve?
Moving a part is not a phone call. Depending on the industry, a buyer may need supplier audits, quality system verification, first article inspection, and material certifications. Some programs also require customer approval of a source change.
That friction cuts both ways for shops running just in time against long supplier lead times. It protects an incumbent on qualified work. It also means a buyer who starts the process has already decided the current arrangement is not working.
Where do buyers look for a second source?
Some of it runs through formal channels. The NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership operates in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. It runs roughly 1,400 advisors at more than 450 service locations, and its centers help manufacturers find domestic suppliers.
Most of it runs through search. A buyer needing a wire EDM house that holds a given tolerance in a given alloy types that requirement somewhere and reads what comes back. Capability pages, equipment lists, certifications, and completed work are what that buyer is checking.
A shop that cannot be found on the process it runs is not in that set. Work quality does not change that.
What can a shop control before a date slips?
Communication timing is the piece most within reach. A buyer told about a three-week delay at week one has options. The same buyer told at week three has a line down.
A shop that watches its own inbound lead times can usually see the problem before the customer does. The mill quotes the shop before the shop has to quote the customer.
Quoting is the other lever. Build the promise date on the mill’s current quoted lead time, not the lead time from six months ago. That is a date the shop can hold.
What can a shop control after one slips?
Two things. What the buyer hears, and what the buyer finds.
The first is a phone call with a revised date and a reason, made early rather than on the due date. The second is whether the shop shows up when a buyer starts looking at alternates. Other buyers are running that same search right now.
Delivery misses will happen while the Supplier Deliveries Index sits at 58.9 percent. Some of that is outside any shop’s control. Being findable and being straight about dates are not.
This article is general industry information and is not financial, legal, or trade compliance advice. Conditions change. Confirm current figures with the cited source.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ISM Supplier Deliveries Index?
The ISM Supplier Deliveries Index records whether manufacturing supply executives received deliveries slower, faster, or unchanged from the prior month. It runs inverted, unlike every other index in the ISM Manufacturing PMI report, so a reading above 50 percent means deliveries slowed. July 2026 registered 58.9 percent.
How long have supplier deliveries been getting slower?
Eight consecutive months as of the July 2026 report, published 3 August 2026. The index rose to 58.9 percent from 57.4 percent in June, following a single month in faster territory. ISM describes the pattern as slowing supplier performance across the manufacturing sector.
What does a purchasing manager do when a supplier misses a promise date?
A buyer has three options. Absorb the delay, pay to expedite, or qualify a second source. The first two cost money or schedule. The third costs time up front and then removes the problem, which is why replaceable parts move faster than sole-source parts with tooling.
How hard is it to change suppliers on a machined part?
That depends on qualification depth, not on price. Moving a part can require supplier audits, quality system verification, first article inspection, and material certifications. Some programs also require customer approval of a source change. A commodity part with qualified alternates moves far more easily than a sole-source part.
Where do buyers find replacement suppliers?
Through formal channels and through search. The NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership runs centers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico that help manufacturers locate domestic suppliers. Buyers also search directly on process, tolerance, material, and certification, then evaluate what capability information a shop actually publishes.
Does one late delivery lose a manufacturing account?
No public dataset answers that. ISM measures delivery performance across the sector rather than individual supplier decisions, and no survey tracks how many misses precede a resourcing decision. The real exposure sits in how replaceable the work is, not in the count of late shipments.
Where MFG Empire Fits
MFG Empire is a York, Pennsylvania marketing firm serving manufacturers exclusively. Founder Rodney Hill worked more than 25 years in machining, tool and die, fabrication, and machine tool support before spending a decade on industrial marketing. The work centers on what a buyer finds when searching for a shop that runs a specific process.
What a second-source search actually reads:
- Manufacturing SEO: Buyer vocabulary research across process, material, and certification
- Website development for manufacturers: Capability information organized the way a buyer evaluates a supplier
Unsure what a buyer finds when they search your process?
Request a quote and we will go through it with you.
About the Author
Rodney Hill is the founder and president of MFG Empire, a marketing firm in York, Pennsylvania built for machine shops, OEMs, and industrial manufacturers. He spent more than 25 years working directly on the shop floor across CNC machining, tool and die, fabrication and welding, and industrial machine dealerships. He troubleshot CNC controls at BobCAD-CAM and built a customer base of over 2,500 users at Dolphin CAD-CAM before turning to marketing full time.
Today he works with manufacturers across North America and overseas, many of them supplying aerospace, space, powersports, and automotive programs. Fox Business has interviewed him on economic pressure facing small manufacturers. He also holds partnerships with ten of the largest MEP networks in the United States.
Reach Rodney at rodney@mfgempire.com or 717-650-0453.
Works Cited
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. “Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey: August 2026.” Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 20 Aug. 2026, www.philadelphiafed.org/surveys-and-data/regional-economic-analysis/manufacturing-business-outlook-survey.
Institute for Supply Management. “Manufacturing PMI at 55.6%: July 2026 ISM Manufacturing PMI Report.” Institute for Supply Management, 3 Aug. 2026, www.ismworld.org/supply-management-news-and-reports/reports/ism-pmi-reports/pmi/july/.
National Institute of Standards and Technology. “Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).” National Institute of Standards and Technology, accessed 31 Aug. 2026, www.nist.gov/mep.
S&P Global Market Intelligence. “S&P Global Flash US PMI: August 2026.” S&P Global, 21 Aug. 2026, www.pmi.spglobal.com.
United States Census Bureau. “Monthly Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders: July 2026.” United States Census Bureau, 26 Aug. 2026, www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/adv/current/index.html.
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