


Azada towers solution driver#
If transporters run late or miss their delivery window and need to get into another slot, it'd be up to the control tower to contact both the driver and the consignee, mediate between them, and set up a new delivery window. While that may be enough in some cases, they're woefully inadequate in most. They're usually limited to logistics operations, and are more reactive than proactive, only working on normalizing operations when there's a disruption that someone spots. If shipments didn't make it on time, if there's a change in route that's affecting on-time deliveries, if there's something amiss in the system that's flagged by a stakeholder or a pending checkbox in someone’s spreadsheet, that's when an in-house control tower stepped in. Usually made up of a small in-house team of operators, these logistics control towers tried to stay on top of things using the bare minimum business intelligence tools available to them - a printout and a telephone. They emerged in the 1990s when logistics managers needed visibility to manage shipments, operations, and overheads better, either for their in-house operations or to oversee their third-party logistics (3PLs) companies.

One of the oldest forms of control towers, these evolved from the humble telephone switchboard. It’s supposed to give you an end-to-end view of all supply chain operations, which should - in theory -reduce delays in information flow, and by extension, the corrective actions you need to take to reduce or eliminate disruptions.ĭepending on the level of supply chain digitization, the visibility solutions you already have in play, the specific problems you need to address, and the mechanisms you have in place to address them, the supply chain control tower you're trying to set up will fall into one or more of the following types.įirst Generation Supply Chain Control Towers Function You’ve probably heard of a Supply Chain Control Tower.Ī Supply Chain Control Tower (SCCT) is a central hub that monitors and manages operations, the ultimate goal of which is supply chain optimization.
