Create Manufacturers
Manufacturers produce parts that may be used in products of other companies. Typically a manufacturer would go through an approval process, based on your company's criteria. In Innovator this process is modeled by a life cycle,
which offers two states for manufacturers once they have been approved - Approved, and Preferred. A preferred manufacturer would meet even higher criteria. An Inactive state is also available for Manufacturers that were once Approved, but are no longer used. When manufacturers are first created, before the approval process takes place, they are assigned to a Preliminary state. Typically a component engineer (a member of the Component Engineering group identity) would be responsible in updating the life cycle of the manufacturers.
To create Manufacturers:
From TOC, select Sourcing, then Manufacturers.
Right click and select New Manufacturers... from the popup menu.
A Manufacturer Form will be displayed:
Enter values for the following properties:
Name - the name of the manufacturer
Main Phone - the phone number of the manufacturer
Contact Name - the name of the person who is the main contact for this manufacturer
Save, Unlock, and Close 
to complete Manufacturer creation.