New research from Info-Tech Research Group finds that implementing a supply chain control tower may help address challenges to supply chain management in the future.
As part of their report, “Using Supply Chain Control Tower for Competitive Differentiation,” the research group found that using a capability-based approach to supply chain management that takes into account end-to-end supply chain visibility in real time can help companies address looming challenges caused by geopolitical activities and the reverberations still felt in the supply chain from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The goal of a supply chain control tower is to capture real-time integrated supply chain data from across all touchpoints to enable enhanced visibility,” Kevin Tucker, principal research director of manufacturing research at Info-Tech Research Group, said. “That visibility can then be utilized to optimize the supply chain through improved collaboration and information for making informed decisions. The primary goal is to make all points in the supply chain environment visible to the enterprise.”
Similar to an airport control tower, a supply chain control tower is a central hub for people, processes, data and analytics technologies that can help process supply chain data for long and short-term decision making.
Using advanced capabilities, such and analytics tools, real-time data, and telescopic digital twins, SCCTs enable an organization to simulate the entire internal and external supply chain process.
“A modern supply chain control tower answers the call as a central hub of information that acts as an overarching view into and across an organization’s supply chain. It will consider the current state of the supply chain, infrastructure, and the financials across the entire global supply chain network,” Tucker said.