How Supply Chain Control Tower Can Boost Performance
In today’s business climate, visibility is critical to maintaining control over global supply networks. Since global supply chains have become increasingly fragmented, control and visibility are becoming even more critical to the success of a global supply chain. For example, transparency into operations, allows businesses to detect emerging risks, cut expenses, and improve efficiency in near real-time.
According to Supply Chain Brain, nearly 80% of all data and operations originate outside a firm’s firewall. Today’s complex and interconnected environments inevitably creates significant control challenges for all involved parties.
Companies dealing with complex national and worldwide supply chains are starting to utilize control towers as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. The capabilities of a control tower, when correctly implemented, are far-reaching, affecting everyone from delivery drivers to garment knitters to supply chain executives.
Having a transparent, well-integrated supply chain keeps you up to date with all current processes and helps you identify issue areas before they spin out of control. . A robust supply chain visibility software solution allows all supply chain stakeholders to see all authorized activities, transactions, and shipments in a clear and transparent environment.
What Is a Supply Chain Control Tower?
A supply chain control tower is an integrated software system that allows you to capture every data unit in the journey from the producer to the end customer; from raw materials to completed goods.
By combining and extending existing ERP, WMS, and TMS systems with vendors, manufacturers, 3PLs, and other stakeholders, control towers gather and extract actionable data, providing granular visibility and operational control across the entire supply chain. Ultimately, this software allows for the optimization of inventory lead times, reducing costs, managing exceptions in real-time, and boosting on-time delivery.
The supply chain control tower is an important tool for ensuring a stable and transparent global supply chain. It can assist companies in streamlining operations, tracking shipments, and monitoring incoming and outgoing activities in real-time, viewing historical data, and analyzing supply chain gaps.
The use of a supply chain control tower opens the way to a wide range of supply chain optimization and profit-margin-increasing benefits. This technology helps businesses to improve their supply networks, by increasing on-time delivery rates, lowering operational and personnel costs, automating manual procedures, and improving supply chain cooperation and communication.
Where Does the Supply Chain Control Tower Bring Value?
A sophisticated supply chain software solution provides many benefits for businesses, making the supply chain a clear and transparent space for all stakeholders, and allowing visibility into operations, orders, and shipments.
Cost Efficiency
Automation is enabled by visibility software, so the team and executives may spend less time on transportation management activities and more time on essential strategic concerns.
Creating an interconnected system with excellent visibility and communication is a modern challenge for every supply chain manager. By implementing a solution that organizes and enhances your supply chain production and efficiency, companies can boost margins while retaining quality. In fact, up to a 75% reduction in expediting costs is possible, along with the savings correlated with fewer inventory shortages and enhancements in on-time delivery.
Workflow Automation
A supply chain visibility platform removes the need for manual tracking and tracing, improving overall supply chain performance and lowering mistakes. A visibility platform that uses AI-enabled technologies can quickly identify bottlenecks in the supply chain.
Data Centralization and Predictability
A large amount of historical data needs to be utilized to design and improve your supply chain strategy. End-to-end supply chain visibility is provided by full-featured visibility software, which includes not only shipment tracking but also simplified operations. You can bring clarity to your plan and obtain the greatest outcomes by using a data-driven approach.
One of the main advantages of the supply chain control tower is that it relieves you of numerous repetitive and manual activities, allowing you to concentrate on the wider picture. These systems can quickly examine millions of data points, utilizing automated forecasting models backed by machine learning, to find the sources of demand fluctuations.
Transparent Relationships with Stakeholders
One of the most important advantages of visibility software is network cooperation. Shippers, suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and carriers may interact in real-time when they use the same technology or share compatible data formats. Businesses may work together on shipping operations while viewing the same data on the same screen.
This enables for more efficient communication, fewer service faults, and more capacity to be distributed to those who need it. Manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, and end customers gain end-to-end visibility because it gives transparency into transactions, easy communication, and real-time control.
Because today’s supply chains are complicated and worldwide, teamwork and connection are critical in this fast-paced industry. The better this big and complicated ecosystem performs, the more visibility and integration you have across your supply chain.
Managing Risks and Supply Chain Exceptions
In 2023 and beyond, risk management will be one of the top issues for businesses, particularly in supply chain management and logistics. A strong visibility platform allows for a more proactive approach to recognizing hazards and vulnerabilities throughout supply chains.
It’s easy to get a big view and immediately identify holes with real-time information and simplified procedures. Smart software can also keep track of any erroneous transactions, invalid operations, shipping delays, and even cyber-threats.
Reach End-to-End Visibility with Agistix
Agistix can help you overcome all of your supply chain challenges with our high-end visibility software. Our key advantage is a gradual, non-disruptive integration that requires no change to your regular business flow; however, after implementation, you will see results in as soon as four weeks:
Reduced costs
Automated operations
End-to-end visibility into any transaction and shipment
Improved order fulfillment and inventory
Reduced labor costs
A proactive approach to detecting supply chain gaps
Our extensive business expertise lets us offer a multifunctional, easy-to-use software solution to have your supply chain in the palm of your hand. Learn more about our supply chain platform solutions today.
Share
Author
Trevor Read
President at Agistix based in San Francisco. I am an entrepreneur with a passion for data, and technology. I am results-oriented and committed to developing fast-deployment solutions to help customers seize the new opportunity coming from big data in the global supply chain.
