The control tower. This term might call to mind visions of a literal, concrete structure reaching towards the sky - a hub where people man headsets and switchboards, managing the flow of information and executing decisive action to keep processes running smoothly. The successful operation of these control towers mean the difference between keeping airplanes in the air, safely en route to their destinations - and disaster.
Disaster is exactly what manufacturers are aiming to avoid, especially amidst the volatility and complexity of today’s global supply chains.
Enter: the smart supply chain control tower.
A Simple Solution To A Complex Problem
85% of executives cite the supply chain as being a crucial factor in the success of their business, yet less than 10% feel on top of the complexity that comes with it.
The globalization of commerce means a given enterprise might have a host of locations and supply chain professionals serving millions of customers around the world, while working with hundreds of differing enterprise systems to coordinate data and organize processes between multiple parties, internally and externally. With so many moving parts, synchronization and integration can easily become messy and problematic, creating costly setbacks due to a lack of end-to-end supply chain traceability and visibility.
And if all of this complexity of data is left to human interpretation and management at every turn? Sounds like a recipe for that aforementioned disaster.
But what if you could have a single, centralized view of every element, at every location, at every stage, from the supply factory to the end customer?
Continuous Intelligence From A Control Tower Perspective
The Industry 4.0 smart manufacturing of today requires the continuous intelligence of a smart supply chain control tower - a platform that uses cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) to collect and analyze real-time data, offering organizations critical supply chain visibility and control.
Widely applicable across a variety of sectors, from the food & beverage industry, chemical industry, mining industry or in pharmaceutical manufacturing, the benefits and capabilities of a control tower are substantial:
- End-to-end supply chain traceability and visibility across all supply chain partners
- Real-time data collection and collaborative sharing of information
- Real-time warning alerts for supply chain disruptions allow for efficient exception management
- Predictive and prescriptive analytics provide pivotal decision-making support
- Machine learning (ML) and autonomous decision-making enable supply chain self-correction
Lift your business to new heights - discover how Industry 4.0 smart manufacturing and smart supply chain control tower technology can make your supply chain management soar by contacting a ThinkiQ expert today, or download our ebook “Advanced Material Traceability Revolutionizes Digital Transformation.”
