Control Tower Strategy & Supply Chain Visibility

Technological developments and the fast globalization of business result in supply chains that are becoming more and more complex to manage. This is combined with the changes and disruptions that seem to be following-up each other at an increasing speed (ever-changing supply chain). Com-panies are looking for solutions that can help them to manage this complexity and avoid risks and uncertainties.

In today’s global environment change and disruptions are the new normal. Global supply chains have become more complex over the last decade. This situation requires you to increase your control on your supply chain and hence create visibility and/or to simply the supply chain dramatically to reduce the exposure and need for visibility. When continuing with complex and global supply chains, visibility is not “a nice to have”, but similar to a driver’s license when driving a car.

Visibility should not only be limited to your downstream supply chain, but also include your upstream suppliers and preferably multi-tier levels. Next to that the visibility should be on order at SKU-level and not be limited to shipments only. An important solution considered by companies is a transport management operations. These solutions focus on visibility, control and optimization of your transportation. Frontrunners in the arena of supply chain control have been able to connect the physical world of transportation with the planning related processes by establishing an end-to-end Control Tower. Next to the most optimal visibility and control solution, you should also consider the following key questions: What to do yourself and what do you outsource to external partners What are supporting IT systems are required and how should the IT landscape look like?

Feasibility assessment on improved visibility and control operations

One of our key services is conducting a strategic review of the benefits of a visibility and control operations and its requirements. We make a clear distinction between transportation management operations and end to end control towers. Our service includes the development of a business case which is based upon an opportunity assessment and our control tower maturity framework which encompasses elements relevant to control tower development such as organizational processes and IT systems.

Design visibility & control operations and make vs. buy decisions

If you require:

• support in designing your end-to-end visibility & control operations or redesigning an existing operation)
• would like to evolve a transport management operation into an end-to-end Control Tower

Our concept (re-)design methodology is a proven solution. Also a Make vs Buy decision (insource or outsource the operations) can be part of the ask.

Our solution includes assessing the proposed organization, processes (roles & responsibilities), IT blueprints, financial and qualitative aspects of the requested concept. This can be included the question of insourcing vs. outsourcing to a LLP/4PL or operating a hybrid model.

Partner selection of a 4PL/LLP

A 4PL or Lead Logistics Provider (LLP) is a company that focuses on the management and optimization of transportation operations. These companies focusing on visibility & control solutions are in general asset-free and have strong IT solutions in place and are therefore providing capabilities useful to our clients. Therefore, we are frequently supporting in the partner selection of a 4PL/LLP based on our knowledge of the market place and a proven RFI/RFP process. The most important selection criteria for selecting the right 4PL/LLP for your organization are:

• Industry knowledge of the 4PL/LLP
• Geographical coverage (including the option for 24/7 operations)
• Independency, i.e. is the 4PL/LLP carrier independent or not (owned by a carrier)?
• Operations focus or also proven continuous improvement methodologies in place
• Dependency of your company as an organization on the 4PL/LLP
• Technology ownership and transfer-ability at the end of the contract 

IT system landscape assessment

Our knowledge of the available IT systems related to visibility & control, enables us to support our clients in the definition of the required IT landscape and the selection of the required IT tool based on a proven RFI/RFP process. Seven key Tool selection considerations are:

• Industry knowledge of IT supplier
• Geographical scope of the solution
• Carrier integrations available and options to add carriers
• Level of visibility needed (shipment vs order line level)
• Ability to integrate with other platforms
• Functionalities linked to value you would like to achieve with the system
• Cost related to the solution (fixed and variable components)

Implementation support

We support our clients in the implementation process of both end-to-end Control Towers as well as transportation management operations. Our support varies from project management support to full implementation management including subject matter expertise.