Tech Notes

Logistics Control Tower

As global supply chains become more sophisticated, protocols must be put in place to help reduce expenses, maintain conformity, and ensure that operational requirements are fulfilled. One method for properly managing the movement of items within a supply chain is to use a Logistics Control Tower.

A sophisticated Logistics Control Tower should enable end-to-end supply chain visibility, especially in the case of unanticipated external occurrences. It should use innovative techniques, such as AI and machine learning, to help you break down data silos, decrease or eliminate manual procedures, and gain real-time actionable insights.

What is a Logistics Control Tower?

Logistics Control Towers offer compelling cost cuts and critical strategic competencies by providing a way to effectively manage, route, track, and measure logistics in real-time to ensure goods arrive on time and undamaged. A control tower model essentially seeks to improve awareness among trade partners, including firms, governments, and means of transportation. 

Logistics Control Towers act as a central data collecting hub that organizes and delivers data to stakeholders in a standard way. It collects real-time statistics and enables logistics providers to better their operations, become more flexible in response to rising customer demand, and increase end-to-end supply chain visibility.

Benefits of Using a Logistics Control Tower

The inclusion of a Logistics Control Tower in your supply chain system has several advantages that should not be overlooked when considering network solutions. Some substantial advantages include:

Visibility

A Logistics Control Tower provides all users with global visibility. Access to this data enables strategic planning of forthcoming shipments, increased performance, and shipment analysis.

Savings

A fully operational next-level Logistics Control Tower may reduce total logistics expenses by 10 to 20%. This is achieved through resource balancing, routing, load consolidation, enhanced sourcing, and improved collaboration with key suppliers.

Performance Enhancement

Logistics Control Towers may spot exceptions across the system, identify problems, and offer remedies in real-time by using the power of data and predictive technology ideas. This tool enables organizations to work smarter and focus on achieving their objectives.

Metrics and Analytics

Logistics Control Towers take critical data/information and automatically conduct the necessary operations, successfully adopting the most efficient approach. This method of autonomy will use data to alter your company processes that would previously require hours of labor to investigate and attain set targets.

Technology

Early control tower systems were simply visibility dashboards, providing insight and analytics monitoring but requiring human execution of most activities. In comparison, the next generation of control towers is vastly enhanced and allows for quick resolutions. They provide in-app capabilities, which means that users may make changes within the SCM/SCP program, decreasing the amount of time required to monitor and alter orders as needed.

Operations That Utilize a Logistics Control Tower

A smarter Logistics Control Tower will enable cross-team communication and the preservation of corporate information to enhance decision-making and outcomes. This allows you to better foresee interruptions, increase resilience, handle exceptions, and respond to unplanned occurrences.

A logistics control tower can offer the following services:

  • Carrier sourcing
  • Rate negotiations
  • Shipment routing using TMS
  • Managing contract pricing and routes
  • Requesting spot quotes in the absence of contract channels
  • Critical and delayed shipping troubleshooting
  • Complete shipment tracking
  • Confirmation of delivery
  • Management of freight claims
  • Audit of freight invoices
  • Data collection, analysis, and metrics

While some businesses require all the aforementioned services, others often pick and choose which responsibilities the control tower will undertake.

Make Better Decisions with TADA's Control Towers

TADA’s Control Towers provide end-to-end, real-time visibility over the full network of a company, including vendors, producers, and strategic associates. They enable enterprises to control what they cannot see, prepare for an infinite number of unknown variables, and minimize interruptions and risks before they become problems.

Visibility and rapid access to up-to-date information are critical for logistics agility and resilience in a world where statistical information can no longer reliably anticipate current and fFuture requirements. To see first-hand how a control tower can streamline your distribution channels, request a demo of TADA's industry-leading Logistics Control Tower. Or, for more information, contact TADA's team today.