Acortando distancias: Informe sobre fabricación externa de Nulogy + ASCM
Brands on average now outsource 30% of their output through external manufacturers, yet many still plan with them over email and phone calls. This survey of almost 50 manufacturing leaders and professionals shows what that disconnect costs, and how connected planning closes it.
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Download the full report and see where your external manufacturing network stands.
How brands really work with their external manufacturers
In 2025, Nulogy and the Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM) surveyed 46 manufacturing professionals across CPG, industrial manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals about how they plan with their co-packers, contract manufacturers, and other external partners.
The results reveal a contradiction. External manufacturers are now core to revenue and service, and more than half of respondents work with over 10 of them. Yet half have limited or no visibility into their partners’ data, and most still rely on email, phone calls, and meetings to coordinate.
Download the report for the full findings, ASCM’s five-level supply chain maturity model, and how one multinational CPG brand improved service levels from its external network by 200 basis points.
The survey, at a glance
Six findings every planning leader should see
What the survey uncovered, and what it means for your external manufacturing network.
The Strategic Role of EMs
About 40% of respondents outsource more than half their production, and more than half work with over 10 external partners.
Legacy Communication Tools
Email, phone calls, and meetings are still the most common way to coordinate. Only 22% call their partner integrations fully integrated or very mature.
The Visibility Gap
Half of brands can’t see their partners’ planning and production data, yet 76% trust that data anyway. The report unpacks that contradiction.
The Business Cost
Stockouts, production delays, and lost revenue top the list of risks, and over two-thirds of respondents cite three or more of them.
Planificación conectada
74% say three or more planning functions, from production planning to procurement, would benefit from real-time visibility into their network.
The Maturity Journey
ASCM’s five levels of supply chain maturity, from reactive to orchestrated, and Nulogy’s crawl, walk, run path to get there.
External Manufacturing Report FAQ
1What is this report?
The Nulogy-ASCM Connected Planning Survey report, published in 2025. It looks at how brand manufacturers plan and collaborate with their external manufacturing partners, and what disconnected planning costs them.
2Who took part in the survey?
46 manufacturing professionals from frontline, managerial, and executive roles. Respondents came mainly from CPG, industrial manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals, and most worked at companies with $1B to $4.9B in revenue.
3What did the survey find?
50% of brands have limited or no visibility into their partners’ data, 80% call limited visibility a major challenge, 70% report frequent disruptions from misalignment, and 60% face three or more recurring challenges, such as long lead times and limited agility to reprioritize.
4What counts as an external manufacturer?
Any partner that makes or moves product on a brand’s behalf, including contract manufacturers, contract packagers, raw material providers, and value-added logistics providers.
5What is the SCOR-based maturity model?
A framework from ASCM that describes five levels of supply chain maturity: reactive, reactive efficient, integrated enterprise, extended enterprise, and orchestrated. At the orchestrated level, external manufacturers become visible, connected parts of the network.
6What is connected planning?
A model where a brand’s planning systems are enriched with real-time data from its external manufacturers, so plans reflect actual partner inventory, capacity, and schedules instead of outdated snapshots.
7How does Nulogy help close the gap?
Nulogy Supplier Collaboration connects your planning system to live capacity, inventory, and production data from every external manufacturer, so the plan reflects what your network can actually deliver.
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Live capacity, inventory, and production data from every partner, connected to your plan.
Get the brochure →See Nulogy Supplier Collaboration in Action
Talk to our team about connecting your planning to your external manufacturing network.
- Live capacity, inventory, and production status from every partner
- Supplier commitments that flow into planning tools like Kinaxis Maestro
- No new software for your suppliers to buy