Article 005 Control Towers - Do you need one ?

Do you have a complex Supply Chain with many moving parts ? Many partners especially if you've outsourced a lot of your supply chain activities ? A lot of dependencies between them AND you have iron clad SLAs with your customers ?

Then YES , you need a Control Tower .

What is a Control Tower .

Picture a control tower at an aiport but istead of a team of people 'pushing tin' (Airplanes) , you have a team of people who rely on detailed decision making rules , monitor and administer your entire Supply Chain - Movements of goods from where it gets made (at the factories) to the Logistics service providers who are multi modal (land , air , sea) , then into your distribution network (assuming you also run one for last mile services) right to the doorstep (or close to it) of your customer .

A good control tower is able to give you visibility of the output of your various manufacturing partners (From when it gets pushed out) accross divisions and regions , the pick up and delivery times of your LSPs at the multi legged an multi modal level and your inventory levels & throughput of your own distribution network .

In order to achieve such visilibity you are going to have to subcribe to a technology platform that has 3 main components :

1) Integration Platform , 2) Data visualizer and 3) Collaboration Platform .

These 3 pieces combined = Control Hub .

The Integration piece of the solution basically is a platform that allows data to be fed from the various systems the partners in your Supply Chain use . EX: WMS (warehouse management systems ) , TMS (Transport Management Systems) , OMS (Order Management systems ) ... etc .

The Visualizer piece , is basically a platform that allows you to consolidate , slice and dice the data from various parties into a coherent and clear way for you and your internal systems to make better informed decisions .

The Collaboration piece , is the platform where you get to effectively share information , problem areas (delays in production , delays in deliveries , Inventory shortages , throughput analysis ) wtith the rest of your partners .

The Biggest advantage of having a Control Hub is you consistently get clear visibility of pretty much every moving part in your Supply Chain which then will allow you to detect risks and most importantly oppurtunities earlier rather than later .

Some key example areas where more visibility is achieved :

1. Purchase order Management

2. Production Planning

3. Production Order Management

4. Supplier Collaboration

5. Supplier Performance Management

6. Distribution Planning

7. Distribution Order Management (Order Status)

8. Cost Control (Logistics cost of product movement)

9. Event Management

10. Global Trade Management

Summary :

With a Control Tower , you will ultimately see massive improvements in these 3 key areas

1. Service levels - Better Total Cycle times and On time delivery times

2. Logistics Cost savings - Better utilization of your internal & outsourced logistics .

3. Inventory Reduction - Have exactly the right levels of stock in your distribution network .