Supply chain control towers give more than just visibility

IntelliTrans global supply chain visibility control tower enables collaboration, improves resiliency, lowers mileage to reduce greenhouse gases

IntelliTrans, the leader in global multi-modal solutions that optimize supply chain operations for bulk and break-bulk product manufacturers, discusses how supply chain control towers provide more than just supply chain visibility. Control towers also help companies make key transportation decisions that reduce deadhead miles, enable collaboration across teams, and help companies better predict disruptions while improving resiliency.

“In the real world, supply chain visibility expands well beyond this basic definition to include real-time data about logistics and other aspects of the supply chain beyond transportation; the ability to help companies maneuver around inventory shortages, avoid bottlenecks, meet compliance directives and track products through to delivery; and the visibility both inside a company’s own operational borders and across its partner network,” said Ken Sherman, president, IntelliTrans.

Global supply chains are dealing with major pandemic-driven challenges today and need technology to improve efficiencies while tackling these issues and serving customers. Here’s how supply chain control towers help:

• Provide real-time transparency by analyzing and comparing data using scenarios and digital twins to predict deviations that will impact shipments. This enables operational personnel to focus their energy on the most important exceptions first, reducing risk and cost.
  
• Visibility gleaned from supply chain data inputs can be translated into a higher level of understanding on what to do next and how to automate routine, repetitive tasks, freeing up valuable time and improving employee engagement.
  
• Using cognitive automation, control towers learn from the actions and decisions that are being made to drive ongoing operational improvements, mitigate disruption, and provide higher levels of customer service. 
  
• By combining human and machine intelligence, modern control towers help users generate the absolute best outcomes. Machines sift through large quantities of data while humans manage the intricacies of relationships and other human elements of the supply chain. 
  
• Equipping businesses to establish, track, and sustain achievement of their KPIs by monitoring progress on the fly, over time. They also send alerts when anomalies occur (i.e., a potential out-of-stock situation on a critical raw material or component) and calculate the impact of that anomaly on the end-to-end supply chain. Armed with this information, supply chain managers can make quick and accurate decisions and avoid potential disruptions. 
  
• Enable collaboration across teams and trading associates to accelerate and improve decision-making and outcomes. 
  
• Gives visibility into a company’s ESG performance so businesses make decisions and adjustments to optimize operations. For example, the control tower can look at alternative transportation modes to minimize travel and reduce emissions.
  

IntelliTrans’ Global Control Tower provides high levels of supply chain transparency; aggregates, completes, and enhances data from a variety of sources; offers visibility into and execution of different aspects of the supply chain; and generates data-driven alerts and analytics that ask deeper questions and deliver meaningful insights.

By leveraging tracking information, the Global Control Tower provides analytics that measures key performance indicators (KPIs) like fleet cycle time, origin/destination dwell time, lane and carrier performance, back orders, freight spend, load optimization, and more. With their rate, equipment, lease, shipment, tracking, and invoice data in a central repository that’s accessible 24/7, companies can position themselves for success in any market conditions.