Supply chain disruptions in the news
Strikes, closures and shortages in the news that could hit your suppliers, each morning.
What it does
Every weekday morning: the business news read by xMap AI for strikes, port closures, plant fires, shortages and export bans that could hit your suppliers, each placed on the map, the new stories only, in a short brief posted to the purchasing channel in Slack and emailed.
In one sentence: Mon–Fri at 07:30, read a news feed for news about a strike, port or border closure, factory fire or shutdown, shortage of a materi, keep only new ones, write a report with xMap AI, then send message to a channel in Slack and email the list to you.
Why it is useful
A delay is cheapest to handle on the day it is announced. A short brief each morning lets purchasing call suppliers before the line stops.
Who it is for
Manufacturing & industrial supply. Manufacturers, industrial distributors and plant teams finding distributors, suppliers and workers, and keeping plants running. Every use case for manufacturing & industrial
Best use cases
- A plant’s purchasing team
- A supply chain risk manager
- An industrial distributor
What each run gives you
- A Slack post
- A morning email
The time it saves
Mon–Fri at 07:30. Doing the same work by hand takes about 30 minutes each time; it runs about 22 times a month, so it saves about 11 hours a month (an estimate). It is easy: 6 blocks.
The flow, block by block
- Every weekday morningTrigger · ScheduleStarts the flow on a timetable.
- Disruptions in the newsxMap data · NewsStories from news feeds (RSS or Atom) or a website’s news page: title, link, when, the source and a short summary.
- Only new onesLogic · Only newLets through only the items this flow has not found before, so a daily flow sends only what is new.
- Write the purchasing briefxMap AI · xMap LLMTell the AI what to do in plain words.
- Post to the purchasing channelApp · SlackChannel-based messaging platform
- Email me the listAction · EmailSends one email per run with all the items, or one email per item.
Every block can be changed after you use the template: the city, the type of place, the score, where the results go.
Use it now
Answer a few questions, enter your work email, and it runs in your own account, kept running until you pause it. Use this template.
How to set it up
- Build your first flow in ten minutes: From a blank page to a flow that emails you a ranked list every morning.
- Enrich a list once: A CSV of addresses or companies back with phone, website, rating and an AI score.
- Bring in news stories: Read news feeds or a news page, keep what matters, put the places on a map.
- Score, rank and label with xMap LLM: A score and a reason for every result, in your words.
- Location intelligence: Using where things are, and what is around them, to make business decisions.
- Site selection: Choosing where to open a store, branch, clinic or facility.
- Lead scoring: Ranking prospects by how likely they are to buy.
More for Manufacturing & industrial supply
- Where to build the next plant: workforce and logistics: Industrial areas ranked by workforce and logistics, as a site memo.
- Factories hiring production staff, for my equipment sales: Factories hiring operators, scored as equipment buyers.
- Metal fabricators for welding supply sales: Fabricators graded as welding supply buyers, with the owner.
- Food manufacturers for my packaging sales: Food manufacturers scored as packaging buyers, with procurement.
- Industrial distributors in a new country: Industrial distributors in a new country, scored, with the managing director.
- Truck repair and machine shops for my spare parts reps: New workshops graded as spare parts buyers, to the reps.