Powering manufacturing resilience through digital procurement

In a time when manufacturing is navigating unprecedented supply chain disruptions and shifting customer demands, Amazon Business is emerging as a strategic partner that empowers manufacturers to build operational resilience through digital procurement. 

Brent Heller, head of manufacturing and industrials at Amazon Business plays a pivotal role in helping industrial organizations revolutionize their procurement through digital innovation. Under his guidance, companies are replacing traditional purchasing methods with sophisticated cloud systems, AI analytics, and integrated systems that drive both efficiency and cost savings. His vision transforms procurement from a routine operational function into a strategic advantage that powers manufacturing success. 

The last few years have underscored the necessity of this transformation. The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the vulnerabilities in global supply chains, prompting a widespread re-evaluation of procurement practices. Supply chain volatility has significantly altered procurement operations, creating heightened demand for digital tools that provide real-time visibility and enable agile, risk-mitigated sourcing strategies. 

In response, Amazon Business has positioned its offerings to help customers diversify supplier networks and deploy predictive analytics that identify and preempt potential disruptions. 

"System integration is a cornerstone of modern procurement," says Heller. "Amazon Business's integration solutions allow seamless connectivity between procurement platforms and essential enterprise systems such as ERP, finance, and inventory management."

These integrations eliminate silos, ensure real-time data flow, and reduce friction in purchasing workflows. The result is a procurement operation that functions more efficiently and informs strategic decisions across the business. 

What complements these integrations is AB Restock which supports manufacturers in optimizing inventory management through machine learning that predicts needs and automates replenishment, preventing stockouts and reducing manual oversight. Beyond raw materials, many organizations are applying AB Restock to PPE and safety equipment, ensuring gloves, helmets, and other protective gear are available when needed. 

During recent supply chain disruptions, unpredictable PPE shortages highlighted the risk to both productivity and worker safety. Automatic replenishment of these essentials builds resilience, minimizes downtime, and keeps employees protected. As Heller notes, digital procurement tools extend beyond core supplies to safeguard people and strengthen manufacturing efficiency. 

From everyday purchases to larger spot buys, businesses can now source just about anything with ease. Amazon Buiness provides enhanced delivery options, such as pallet delivery, streamlined procurement of bulk orders for faster, more efficient fulfillment for high-volume needs. 

Spend Visibility and AB Restock provide tangible value. Spend Visibility turns raw data into actionable insights, helping organizations clean up fragmented ERP and category structures, reduce supplier onboarding time, and bring rogue spend under control across distributed teams. AB Restock goes a step further by automating replenishment of both production-critical inputs and essential categories like PPE and safety equipment. 

Rather than pouring effort into massive MRO quoting exercises - where thousands of items are requested and only a fraction ever ordered - leaders gain predictability and efficiency at scale. By linking analytics with automation, Amazon Business enables manufacturing organizations to streamline procurement, reduce friction, and build resilience across complex, evolving supply chains. 

Data is, in fact, central to the approach. Spend Visibility provides robust data visualizations and analytics that empower smarter budgeting and cost-saving decisions. With these insights, procurement leaders can evaluate supplier performance, identify trends, and forecast future spending with a degree of precision that manual processes simply cannot match. 

Managing spending can be challenging, specifically with numerous buyers and transactions. To address this, Amazon Business introduced Spend Anomoly Monitoring, a tool for Business Prime enterprise members that evaluates transactions and flags unusual spending patterns. It identifies anomalies such as unusual category purchases, split transactions, abnormal repurchases, and excessive daily spending, helping administrators maintain better control and oversight. 

The future is filled with potential.  At the 2025 Amazon Business Reshape, Amazon Business announced a number of new AI-powered solutions including the Amazon Business Assistant that can help organizations discover savings, automate routine tasks, and make spending easier and more efficient. 

The impact is measurable, according to the 2025 State of Procurement Data Report, 43% of procurement leaders agree that their teams should invest more time in tools and technology to improve efficiency. Heller's work - and the solutions offered are a direct answer to that call.  

Originally published on Manufacturing Technology Insights