Supplier Matching System

NowToPrint's matching system delegates candidate eligibility and deterministic ranking to the canonical @nowtoprint/marketplace/manufacturing policy. It produces explainable, manual-first supplier recommendation evidence for each RFQ. It does not auto-award work or start public-scale supplier routing automation.

Production Evidence in Quote Comparison

Production-fit evidence can distinguish a direct inventory-lot or supplier-source match from catalog context alone. Catalog context is supporting information; neither a direct match nor a shortlist proves that a job is ready to print. Check source trust, freshness, the accepted specification and current production gates.

The buyer makes the decision. Comparison does not change the supplier's quoted price or automatically award an order; acceptance must validate the current quote/RFQ and required evidence. Do not assume that an old screen preserves a supplier's capacity or price.

Capacity-Aware Shortlisting

A production capability says what a printer can manufacture; a capacity snapshot says whether it can manufacture the requested quantity during a specific time window. NowToPrint treats these as separate evidence.

Before a supplier reaches the manual shortlist, the policy checks capability fit, supplier recommendation, capacity expiry, already reserved capacity, currency, delivery region, price ceiling and lead-time ceiling. Eligible candidates are ordered deterministically by intelligence evidence, price, lead time and supplier identifier. The policy never awards a supplier.

The decision is fail-closed. A supplier without a durable capability, capacity, commercial and delivery-region snapshot is not placed in the shortlist. Missing buyer currency or delivery-region constraints produce an input-incomplete manual review result; the system does not invent a currency, price or capacity value.

Split fulfilment and material or producer substitutions always create a manual hold. Operations must review production, delivery, artwork scaling, commercial terms and buyer re-approval before continuing.

Matching Flow

Decision and ranking order

The internal policy records failed hard constraints. Remaining candidates are ranked by intelligence score, then minor-unit amount, business-day lead time and a deterministic supplier identifier tie-break. Internal decision evidence records the policy version and capacity observation window for authorised review.

The public action returns a restricted supplier summary. It does not expose the full internal routing evidence, commercial snapshot or rank-factor record. Matching itself neither sends a quote nor awards the work.

Operational Score Gate

The operational supplier score comes from @nowtoprint/marketplace/suppliers, not from the web UI. A low score blocks public recommendation. A supplier with no history or recent quality/refund evidence stays in manual review and can appear only with explicit review context. Raw verification documents, internal score inputs, and private evidence hashes are not exposed in matching responses.

Notification System

Matching produces candidates for manual review. Supplier opportunity notifications are a separate authorised dispatch process, subject to publication, supplier eligibility and delivery controls. A shortlist position is not a guarantee that an email was sent or received.

Result	Meaning
Manual-review shortlist	Eligible candidates are available for review
No eligible candidate	No supplier is awarded; review missing evidence or constraints
Manual hold	Split fulfilment or substitution requires review

There are no public notification-priority bands tied to a promised percentage score.

Supplier Visibility

Registration, an Enterprise label or a legacy Supplier Pack does not grant RFQ access. Producer operations require the current organisation's authorisation, active producer approval and clear marketplace standing. Product eligibility and the request's visibility/quote-intake controls also apply. A supplier cannot quote its own organisation's demand.

An approved supplier can still have no routing shortlist entry if capability, capacity, currency, region or commercial evidence is missing or fails a constraint. See Supplier access.

Category Specialist Signal

A category specialist signal can help operations interpret a supplier profile, but it does not guarantee extra visibility and cannot override the operational score gate.

Criterion	Requirement
Category focus	Strong recent quote or order history in that category
Acceptance quality	Healthy accepted-quote and completion pattern
Operational score	Clear or explicitly reviewed package-owned score signal
Manual review	Required when history is thin or quality/refund evidence is recent

The matching surface should treat this as supporting context for manual review, not as a deterministic ranking multiplier.

FAQ

Why can't I see some RFQs?

Check producer activation, the selected organisation, product eligibility and request visibility. A routing result also needs current capability/capacity and commercial evidence. A missing result does not prove that there is no demand.

How can I improve the evidence used in matching?

Keep capabilities and delivery regions accurate, maintain current capacity/commercial records, respond to requests and address quality or refund incidents. Profile completeness or a badge alone cannot override the policy gates.

Can I serve all of Turkey?

Only the service regions recorded and supported by the supplier's current evidence can satisfy a request. Confirm actual coverage and logistics; a broad profile label is not a nationwide fulfilment guarantee.