• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile

  • CORONAVIRUS
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • REGIONS
    • Asia Pacific
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East/Africa
    • North America
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Watch: The Evolution of Control Towers for Distribution and Warehousing
Video

Watch: The Evolution of Control Towers for Distribution and Warehousing

April 23, 2020
SupplyChainBrain

Control towers are taking on an increasingly vital role in modern-day warehouses, powered by advances in artificial intelligence, says Kevin Reader, director of business development and marketing with Knapp.

SCB: What’s your definition of a “control tower”?

Reader: Control towers were developed with the idea that they were going to control supply-chain operations on an overarching level. Today, there are micro-level implementations of that, particular with respect to quality control in warehousing and distribution fulfillment.

SCB: So they’ve evolved from their original conception?

Reader: Some implementations are getting a bit more specialized. And there are experts in particular areas that make them more functional, more capable and higher-performing.

SCB: What’s the status of their use and success in distribution and fulfillment facilities today? Are they well-established?

Reader: Mature in some senses, but it's an emerging technology. It's not widely implemented at this point, but there are instances of spectacular success.

SCB: What has made it possible for this to become a mature technology?

Reader: Part of it is attitudinal. A control tower that's running a fulfillment center or distribution center is connected to a myriad of different solutions — warehouse management systems, warehouse control systems, automation and things like that. We as an industry had to mature to the point where we were willing to look at these particular implementations and plug into various pieces of equipment or software solutions that aren’t necessarily made by us.

SCB: Are there any issues in integrating hardware and software from multiple vendors into this centralized system?

Reader: Yes, there are. In some cases, you have friendly relationships where you agree to a closer integration. In others, you have less-than-friendly relationships with suppliers, and that requires a more manual integration. That might be a way that you bridge the gap.

SCB: Talk about the use of control towers for control and scheduling of labor. What role are they playing, and how successful are they?

Reader: Think about the scope of control in a fulfillment center as being from one end of the facility to the other. Not excluding security, not excluding things like H.R. and those type of aspects, but really end to end. Labor is by definition one of the areas of low-hanging fruit. It’s getting harder and harder to get labor. We're down to hardcore unemployables in many markets, especially as these mega distribution centers go up. We need the ability to move decision-making about labor from every couple of hours or every day to real-time levels, with notifications going out to decision makers on a minute-by-minute basis.

Now, when I plan and schedule labor, I'm planning at a much more finite level. I'm not using labor standards, I'm using labor actuals. My ability to resolve what productivity rates are actually going to be is significantly improved.

SCB: In the world of e-commerce, you have to react to what’s going on at the moment. You don't know what to expect.

Reader: It's analogous to the problems we had with simulation. You couldn't make decisions about how to design a warehouse with calculators and spreadsheets. When you really get down to it, you're using simulation because you're modeling multiple operating independent variables, and it's those mathematical tools that help you to do that. The availability of those tools has driven the use of control towers, and their acceptability and performance, to a whole new level.

SCB: Should we distinguish the use of control towers for labor management from labor management system [LMS] software? Are they two completely different things?

Reader: The control tower takes over the LMS functionality. It's inseparable from the rest of the resources. Looking at it from the practitioner perspective, it's a group of resources that must be employed to move product through the door, effectively and efficiently.

SCB: It is something like taking a warehouse management system and putting it on steroids?

Reader: I look at control-tower technology as a leapfrog technology. You're moving the whole enterprise up to a real-time level, and you're plugging all these pieces into it, from ERP [enterprise resource planning] to WMS, WCS, labor management, and things like that. You can employ mechanization to gain a heck of a benefit.

SCB: What role is artificial intelligence playing in control towers today?

Reader: Massive. There's a huge place for both predictive modeling and AI in how you manage a fulfillment center.

SCB: It wouldn’t be too extreme to say we wouldn’t have control towers in their current form if it weren’t for AI.

Reader: Totally agree. Most people in the mechanization business have to start asking themselves a fundamental question: "Is my business around mechanization, or am I a software business?" It's getting to the level of a strategic perspective.

SCB: What's it going to take for control towers to catch on with a greater number of warehouse operations? Is it simply a growing awareness of the advantages? Or does something more have to happen for it to spread itself more widely?

Reader: I think it's awareness. We're seeing savings on the order of 5% to 30% by rolling out this technology. With typical savings at a P&L level of 8% to 10% of costs. When you can implement that in less than a year, it doesn't take long before you say, "This seems like a very good investment."

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Warehousing Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain) Supply Chain Visibility All Warehouse Services Order Fulfillment
KEYWORDS Data Management (Big Data/IOT/Blockchain) order fulfillment Supply Chain Visibility Warehouse Management Systems
  • Related Articles

    Gaining Control in a Turbulent World: The Case for Supply-Chain Control Towers

    Modern Control Towers: Choosing the Right One for Your Digital Supply Chain

SupplyChainBrain

Manifest Las Vegas Announces 2023 Sponsors, Discounted Tickets

More from this author

Wake up to live
“Supply Chains in Crisis”
updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • coworkers collaborate

    Podcast | Linking Planning and Execution for Real-Time Decision-Making

    Sales & Operations Planning
  • FedEx

    FedEx Faces Big Changes as New Boss Confronts Higher Costs, Angry Contractors

    Last Mile Delivery
  • 0621_Burrito.png

    Chipotle Zeroes in on Supply Chain Traceability and Visibility

    Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
  • cyber crime

    The Cyber Blind Spot That Makes Every Supply Chain Vulnerable

    Regulation & Compliance
  • 0627_Guitars.png

    Sweetwater Responds to the ‘New Face of Agility’ in Supply Chain and Merchandising

    Inventory Planning/ Optimization

Digital Edition

Scb may 2022 sm

2022 Supply Chain ESG Guide

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • 3PL Doubles Productivity With Robots to Fulfill Medical Supply Orders

  • E-Commerce Company Cuts Order Fulfillment Time by 40%

  • Fashion Retailer Halves Fulfillment Time With Omichannel Automation

  • Distributor Scales Business by Integrating Warehouse Automaton Software

  • Fast-Growing Fashion Brand Scales E-Commerce Fulfillment With Whiplash

Visit Our Sponsors

Yang Ming Alithya Barcoding
Blue Yonder BNSF Logistics Generix
GEP GreyOrange Here
Honeywell Intelligrated IFM Inmar
Keelvar Kinaxis Korber
Liberty SBF Locus Robotics Logility
Lucas Systems Nvidia Old Dominion
ORTEC Parsyl QIMA
Redwood Logistics Saddle Creek Logistics Schneider Dedicated
Setlog Holding AG Ship4WD Shipwell
Tecsys TGW Systems Thomson Reuters
Tive Trailer Bridge Vecna Robotics
Verity
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2022 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing