A well-managed control tower is essential for a complex supply chain. If any of the skills, technology or experience required to manage the control tower are missing, the supply chain will falter.
People are always on the move because of promotions or relocations and, particularly if the move is unexpected, much of the skill and all of the experience that the individual had are lost.
If the control tower did not have any formally established processes, then the loss of a key employee and their experience and knowledge can be disastrous.
Technology is always changing and a control tower must keep abreast of these changes to prevent redundancy. If the manager or supervisor is not technologically savvy then full value may not be derived, given that the return of investment of any technology investment is largely dependant on how that technology is used.
Control Tower Optimisation
Grant Marshbank, CEO at VSC Smart Supply Chains, says “We identify three areas in a control tower that need to be working optimally, namely people, processes and technology.”
Even if a control tower is well managed there may still be plenty of room for improvement.
“Many of our customers operate in the FMCG, retail or wholesale industry. They are experts at what they do and when combined with our technical and operational knowledge and skill, we find that maximum value is realised,” says Grant.
VSC Smart Supply Chains offer assistance to companies with control towers in one of three ways. Firstly, they offer a Managed Service Control Tower where they can be contracted to manage the control tower using their own employees, processes and technology.
Secondly, they can be brought in to train a company’s existing employees, develop the required processes and install the necessary technology.
The third option involves a combination of the first two where they are contracted to develop the control tower and then, once up and running, they hand over the processes, technology and staffing.
Significant logistical improvements
Grant says, “Our Managed Service Control Tower results in clear and concise improvements. Compliance is driven as a critical KPI and past experiences show that our processes and technology, when correctly managed, reduce the planned vs actual kms and time significantly. In a recent case study we improved compliance from 55 percent to 89 percent within six months of taking over the control tower from our customer and this resulted in a 200 percent planned vs actual variance reduction.”
Click here to find out more about VSC Smart Supply Chains’ Real Time Delivery Visibility Portal, the Virtual Supply Chain.
VSC Smart Supply Chains maintains a number of highly skilled control tower management staff and should an employee no longer be available at a particular control tower they are able to draw on their resources to immediately replace the vacancy without disruption to the operation
In short VSC Smart Supply Chain is fully capable of resolving any control tower issues you may face.
If you are having control tower issues please contact Grant Marshbank, CEO of VSC Smart Supply Chains, for more information on 072 241 1811 or email grant.marshbank@vscsolutions.co.za