A systematic method to foster the adoption of logistic ‘control towers’ in a multi-actor environment

A supply chain control tower is an inter-connected and personalized dashboard of data, business metrics and events to support the logistic flows and the decision-making process. In particular, outbound logistic control towers produce information about the state of orders along the downstream distribution channel(s). Their recent introduction and adoption by industrial players is related to their need of guaranteeing top service level to the end customers by fully tracking and tracing the chain between production and consumption. To reach good service level, it is mandatory for all actors to cooperate. At the same time, due to their multitude and different interests and priorities, major challenges rise. This working paper introduces a systematic method to approach the initial stages of the adoption of a logistic control tower, further proposing insights from an industrial use case of the food and beverage sector. The method encompasses the mapping of the orders, both from a physical and informative perspective, taking advantage on the use of lean tools as the Value Stream Mapping (VSM). Best practices that companies should embrace to address the occurring obstacles, such as technical issues with IT systems, lack of awareness, high costs, data quality and data timeliness are presented, classified and discussed.