How Control Towers Help Manage Supply Chain Variability, Improve Revenues

The concept of the supply chain control tower is not new — it’s been in use for more than a decade. However, with the recent upheaval of supply chains, there’s been a resurgence of the control tower concept to increase visibility into business operations and to make supply chains more sustainable and reliable. The control tower method enables users to get an overview of operations in order to spot supply and demand variations as well as related changes then adjust production and logistics accordingly to avoid disruptions.  

A well-planned control tower is a centralized hub with the requisite technology, organizational tools, people, and processes needed to capture data from all stages of the supply chain for real-time visibility. It can be a means to manage complex supply chains and their variability.

According to Grand View Research, the $5.28 billion global control tower market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.7% from 2020 to 2027. The report goes on to state that control towers are becoming predominant in the supply chain and transportation ecosystem, in part because they make it easier to track deliveries in real-time and make the delivery process more efficient.

Scalable and adaptable, control towers can deliver tangible benefits, such as increased revenue, better margins, asset efficiency, enhanced risk mitigation, and increased responsiveness.