Supply Chain Control Towers: Defined and Explained

Supply chain management is critical in getting products and goods from manufacturers or suppliers to end users. As the supply chain grows increasingly global, many moving parts play a part in its success. Supply chain managers need to keep abreast of planning, sourcing, production, delivery, and returns. Supply chain control towers make this role easier to do with efficiency and accuracy.

Supply chain control towers centralize information, people, data, and more to keep a business organized, efficient, and optimized. If you’re interested in a supply chain career, you’ll want to read on to learn the basics of supply chain control towers and their value.

Read more: Supply Chain Management: Definition, Jobs, Salary, and More

What is a supply chain control tower? 

A supply chain control tower (SCCT) represents a central hub of people, technology, processes, and more. Businesses with global reach can benefit from having supply chain control data, skills, and expertise in a single location. 

A cloud-based system in a supply chain control tower automatically gathers and integrates data from all facets of a company's supply chain, delivering real-time insights. SCCT also encompasses a centralized data dashboard to provide visibility into vital business metrics and events. Another essential feature of SCCTs is predictive analytics, which demonstrates how potential supply chain adjustments or external factors could influence the supply chain.

Furthermore, combining information gathered from end-to-end in the supply chain (e.g., manufacturers, distributors, and carriers) allows for improved decision-making while reducing stock shortages and expenses incurred through expediting shipments.

Read more: What Is a Supply Chain Analyst? (And How to Become One)

Types of supply chain control towers 

When discussing supply chain control, you might see references to different types of control towers. The overall supply chain control tower looks at external and internal supply chain components to enable transparency end-to-end. This requires collaboration with suppliers and partners but benefits the entire supply chain. 

Conventional supply chain control towers in use today include: 

• Logistics/transportation control towers to offer visibility into inbound and outbound transportation and logistics.

• Fulfillment control towers to focus on package shipments, expediting orders, and reducing the cost to ship.

• Inventory control towers to target effective inventory management to avoid stock-outs and shortages.

• Supply assurance control towers to ensure adequate supply and better margins by focusing on sourcing and procurement issues.

With SCCTs, you bridge the silos among the individual control towers for greater agility and resilience.

How do supply chain control towers work?

The supply chain control tower leverages all the data and information it can. An SCCT will collect and integrate data (e.g., from remote sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) technology, and barcodes) to provide real-time insights. 

Centralizing information about everything from weather and traffic to supplier shortages or price drops, the SCCT uses powerful data analytics (and often artificial intelligence and machine learning) to surface action items. The SCCT technology can help prioritize issues, notify managers of potential risks, automate processes, and more. As the supply chain grows increasingly digital, more big data becomes available to learn from and develop even more detailed, accurate analyses.  

Contemporary supply chain control tower solutions offer several key features:

• Continuous data intelligence

• Advanced, real-time analytics 

• Predictive and prescriptive tools to move you from reactive to proactive

• Impact analysis

• Powerful modeling functionality

• Functions enabling collaborative communication within the control tower technology to avoid switching back and forth between software or applications

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning to support process automation 

Who uses supply chain control towers?

Supply chain control towers provide real-time metrics to identify potential product flow disruptions, suggest solutions, and offer greater flexibility across several industries. This data proves valuable for any organization developing a resilient supply chain. They come in handy, particularly for businesses with global reach which source and track products, processes, and information from many diverse sources. Examples include health care, e-commerce retailers, and manufacturing companies.

Common roles that come to rely on supply chain control towers include:

• Supply chain managers

• Risk managers

• Sustainability managers

• Inventory managers

• Logistics managers

• Customer service managers

Read more: How to Manage Project Risk: A 5-Step Guide

Benefits of supply chain control towers 

Supply chain control towers offer several advantages. As they continue to evolve, the quantitative and qualitative benefits will likely grow as well.

1. Enhanced flexibility 

SCCT originated as a way to provide transparency internally or with immediate trading partners. Today, though, technology has advanced so that multi-party control towers can provide visibility throughout an elaborate network. With the power of analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities, SCCTs offer enhanced flexibility. 

Many technology providers in this area offer dashboards on which businesses can track several key performance indicators (KPIs). Digital transformation also lets users automate inventory planning and replenishment, pricing and trends analysis, and route planning and dispatch workflows.

2. Increased speed and reliability

Automating supply chain processes through SCCT reduces the time dedicated to gathering data, connecting information, and strategizing analysis. Additionally, AI enables logistics teams to operate faster and more confidently when generating quotes or evaluating loads.

3. Sustainability gains

A centralized view of supply chain control supports optimized dispatching and routing. The business might see opportunities to limit transportation emissions through shorter routing or by choosing different transportation modes.

In fact, a SCCT can support overall environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. With added visibility throughout the supply chain, the organization can gain the ability to rank its suppliers for sustainability and other ESG criteria.

Improved customer support 

Having a consolidated view of inventory levels, manufacturer capacity, carrier availability, and distribution flow can benefit customer service. End-to-end supply chain visibility supports improved communication.

Customer support also benefits from more accurate forecasting and decisions. This can help reduce stockouts, material shortages, and other supply chain obstacles.

Potential SCCT challenges

You can find many providers available to help launch a successful control tower initiative. Typically, you’ll need to decide between a pre-built offering or building your own proprietary one. 

In doing either, keep in mind these potential challenges:

• Unrealistic expectations of an SCCT that is overly complicated

• Difficulty breaking down the operational silos to gain the needed visibility

• Concerns among network partners around sharing data

• Need for human talent to analyze and interpret the insights from control towers

How to start in supply chain control towers

You can begin to work with supply chain control towers in many entry-level roles. Common opportunities include:

• Logistics associate

• Logistics technician

• Production scheduler

• Purchasing agent

• Sourcing specialist

• Supply planner

To launch your supply chain career working with control towers, you’ll typically want to complete a bachelor’s degree in logistics, systems engineering,, business, administration, or supply chain management. 

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Supply chain executives face the dual challenge of meeting customer demands promptly while streamlining supply operations and achieving cost-saving goals. A supply chain control tower lightens the load by offering comprehensive visibility across the supply chain, especially amid unexpected external events.

Learn more about the intricacies of supply chains with the Supply Chain Management Specialization from Rutgers University or an introduction to Supply Chain Principles from Georgia Tech on Coursera. You can delve further into supply chain analytics with Rutgers' Supply Chain Analytics Specialization to examine supply chain pain points, problem-solve, and plan effective logistics strategies.