Sourcing risk — parts with one usable supplier, or none
Section 01
Sole source, single source, no source
1 minute
A supplier fire, an insolvency or a suspension only stops your line where a part has nowhere else to come from. The supply-risk guides draw the same distinction: a sole source is the only supplier that can make the part (a patent, their tooling, a spec); a single source is a choice to buy from one when others could. Brytebuild adds the case that matters most and is easiest to miss: no usable supplier — every supplier on file is suspended or unapproved, or none was ever added, and MRP is planning to buy it anyway.
Usable means you may actually raise a purchase order: approval status Approved or Conditional — the same rule as Require approved suppliers. A suspended or unapproved supplier is on file but is not a second source. The same rule drives the Single source flag on the item's Suppliers tab and on MRP recommendations, so the three never disagree.
Section 02
The report
2 minutes
Every purchased part with one usable supplier or none, worst first. Tiles at the top count the bands and filter the table. Each row shows:
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Why | Sole source, Single source (with the alternates on file that are not usable, and why) or No usable supplier. |
| Supplier and health | The one you depend on: approval status, preferred flag, on-time delivery % over 12 months (with the sample it is based on) and open NCRs — the same figures as the supplier's scorecard. |
| Used in | How many assemblies carry the part in their BOM — how far a failure would spread. |
| Consumed 90d / Open demand | What production actually drew in the last 90 days, and what MRP currently wants to buy (suggested + approved recommendations). |
| Lead / Lifecycle | The supplier's lead time, and the part's PLM stage — an end-of-life part with one supplier is a red, not an amber. |
The part's own page shows a SOLE SOURCE, SINGLE SOURCE or NO USABLE SUPPLIER badge that links here, and a supplier's scorecard shows Sole source for N parts — the number to have in mind before you suspend them.
Section 03
Red, amber, green
1 minute
| Band | Rule |
|---|---|
| Red | Production would stop: no usable supplier for a part that is used or planned; or one supplier and the part is end-of-life; or the one supplier is Conditional with open NCRs. |
| Amber | One usable supplier and the part is genuinely used — in a BOM, consumed recently, or wanted by MRP. |
| Green | One usable supplier but nothing builds with it today. Worth knowing, not worth a meeting. |
| Accepted | Someone with product-edit rights recorded that the exposure is acceptable, and why. Stays on the list, sorted last, with the underlying band shown. |
Section 04
What to do about it
1 minute
Three honest options, in the order the guides recommend. Qualify an alternate: add a second supplier on the part's Suppliers tab and get their approval status to Approved or Conditional — the row disappears the moment there are two usable sources. Hold buffer stock for the reds and ambers you cannot second-source quickly (the part's min/max policy). Accept the risk deliberately: Accept risk… asks for a reason of at least ten characters — the patent, the tooling, the buffer you hold — and records who accepted it and when in the audit log. Withdraw reverses it.
The classification is computed when you open the page from the supplier links, approval statuses, BOMs, stock movements and MRP recommendations as they are now. Suspend a supplier and their parts move bands immediately; approve a second source and the row is gone. Only the acceptance is stored, because it is a decision, not a fact.
Suggesting which alternate supplier to approach; turning a red into a buffer-stock recommendation automatically; geographic concentration; a notification when a part becomes sole-sourced (the report is the surface — a supplier suspension already notifies).