Feasibility analysis of an end-to-end transport control tower

Assignment

Assess the value of an end to end control tower for an industrial company with decentralized decision making and operations in various countries across the globe.

Project summary

Mapping of an end to end supply chain for the US, Europe and APAC region, including suppliers and customers of suppliers. The focus was on the supply side of the supply chain with the objective to obtain visibility on a product level.

Our approach

• Develop a baseline to illustrate the current organization, processes, metrics, flows and supply chain costs including days of inventory in various parts of the chain
• Assess the value of the end to end control tower to optimize the inbound flows, optimize the planning across the supply chain and reduce the days of inventory on hand in the entire network
• Develop a target operating model for an end to end control tower including an organizational model with clear roles and responsibilities, head count, supply chain planning processes and required IT systems to manage the flows and to enable better decision making
• Development of a business case with clear explanation of the financial and qualitative benefits of the control tower
• Development of an implementation plan starting with a transportation focused control tower which migrates towards an end to end control tower over time. The financial benefits of the transportation oriented control tower were used to pay off the systems implementation and implementation costs to transform the organization towards the end to end control tower set up

Result

Implemented control tower which has increased the visibility in the entire supply chain, has reduced the inventory holding in the supply chain and has reduced inbound transport spend from vendors to the plants of the client.