Mike Jarrett, chief executive officer and president of Jarrett Logistics, talks about the scope and purpose of the modern-day supply chain control tower.

The concept of a supply chain control tower is almost as old as the term “supply chain management,” but it has evolved over the years. Jarrett defines it today as a centralized point of contact, at which critical data about products and shipments is received and transmitted between an organization and its suppliers upstream, and customers downstream.

A control tower is about more than simply visibility. Jarrett says it has increased in value and purpose with the application of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence. Back in the days when it was called a “routing center,” the model lacked the ability to communicate with all parties effectively. Today, information is communicated via electronic data interchange (EDI) and application programming interfaces (APIs). But it can also be transmitted by phone or email — it all depends on the technological sophistication of the user, Jarrett says.

Once information reaches the tower, it has to be acted on. Jarrett says users can define their own parameters around the granularity of reporting. An expedited shipment of a critical production part, for example, might call for virtual minute-by-minute monitoring on its way to the factory — so-called “breadcrumb tracking” — but for items of lesser priority, the shipper or logistics provider might be satisfied with exception-based reporting. In all cases, Jarrett says, the objective is to “move the shipment through the supply chain, and get it from point A to point B as efficiently, quickly and at least cost as possible.”

AI is playing a major role in today’s supply chain control tower, but as with a literal air traffic control tower, human action continues to be required. Jarrett says that will always necessary, for a shipper to provide the best possible service to its customers.