Plex and Twilio integration

What moves between them

Plex supply chain and manufacturing events flow into Twilio one direction only. ml-connector polls Plex for changes to Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, quality holds, inventory levels, and Container movement, and sends SMS or voice notifications to shop floor supervisors, logistics coordinators, and customer service representatives. Phone numbers are stored per Plex entity (supplier, customer, or internal Plex user) or in a reference table, and Twilio message templates are mapped to Plex event types such as order release, invoice received, quality hold placed, or shipment ready. Twilio provides delivery status callbacks which ml-connector logs to Plex audit records.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector polls Plex on a schedule you define, reading Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, Container receipts, and quality events filtered by created_date or modified_date. When an event matches a routing rule (for example, a quality hold on a high-value order, or a Container arrival to a specific facility), ml-connector formats the alert according to the template and retrieves the destination phone number from Plex entity data or a lookup table. It then calls Twilio's Messages endpoint with the Account SID and Auth Token (stored encrypted), specifying the From number (a Twilio Incoming Phone Number) and the To number. Twilio returns a message SID, which ml-connector stores in the Plex audit log along with the template ID and routing decision. As Twilio status callbacks arrive for message delivery or failure, ml-connector records them as audit events so the alert history is complete. Rate limiting and API credentials are managed per customer cell, since each customer is a separate Plex tenant and may have their own Twilio account or shared parent account.

A real-world example

A discrete parts manufacturer with three plants uses Plex for production planning, purchasing, and inventory. The logistics team manually checks Plex several times a day for incoming purchase orders and Container receipts, and the shop floor supervisor calls the buyer when inventory is critically low. With Plex and Twilio connected, each new Container arrival or below-reorder-point alert triggers an SMS to the warehouse coordinator, each purchase order release sends a notification to the buyer, and quality holds automatically alert the plant manager and the customer. The logistics team is no longer reactive and manually checking the system, and critical alerts reach the right person immediately.

What you can do

• •Poll Plex Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, and Container events on a configurable schedule and send SMS or voice alerts to shop floor, logistics, and buyer teams via Twilio.
• •Map Plex entity data such as supplier or customer contact information to Twilio phone numbers for automatic alert routing.
• •Create alert templates per Plex event type (order released, quality hold, shipment received) and dispatch them through Twilio with full message tracking.
• •Capture Twilio message delivery status (sent, delivered, failed) and record it in audit logs alongside the original Plex entity and the routing decision.
• •Authenticate both Plex with OAuth 2.0 client credentials and Twilio with API Key credentials, storing both sets encrypted per customer cell.

Questions

Does the integration push data from Twilio back into Plex?

No. Plex to Twilio is one-directional. ml-connector reads manufacturing and supply chain events from Plex and sends alerts through Twilio. Twilio message delivery status is logged as audit records in Plex, but no Twilio data or customer responses are written back into Plex financials or operations. The integration is a notification bridge, not a two-way sync.

How does ml-connector know which phone number to send each alert to?

Phone numbers are retrieved from two sources. First, ml-connector checks the Plex entity record (for example, the supplier contact on the Purchase Order, or the customer contact on the Sales Order). If the phone field is empty or missing, ml-connector looks up the phone number in a reference table keyed by Plex user ID or facility code. This allows the same Plex entity to notify different people at different times, and allows you to manage phone numbers separately from Plex.

What happens if Twilio fails to send a message or returns an error?

ml-connector logs the Twilio error to the audit trail linked to the Plex entity and the alert template. If the error is transient (for example, a network timeout or HTTP 429 rate limit), ml-connector retries with exponential backoff. If the error is permanent (for example, an invalid phone number or invalid Account SID), the alert is marked failed in the audit log and will not retry. You can review failed alerts in the audit history and re-send them manually if needed.