Supply Chain Control Tower Q&A Interview
Name: Robert Kepczynski
Company: Syngenta
Role: Supply Chain Strategy and Design Team
How would you define the Supply Chain Control Tower?
In the context of Syngenta and current use cases, we see the Control Tower as an instrument for analytics, reporting, exception management, alerts, and workflow out of an IBP data model.
In the mid-term, we would like to define it as an instrument that can read data from external sources (non-IBP). Not data from the customers or suppliers, but our own data from other BI's.
What are the top capabilities you would seek to gain from a Control Tower?
1. Reporting and analytical capabilities e.g. dashboard, graphical reporting (70% focus)
2. Alerts (30% focus)
What time horizon would you plan to use a Control Tower for?
Short to mid-term planning. Would not seek to use the C.T in the long term.
What is the role of the Control Tower in relation to Segmentation?
We would like to use the Control Tower for differentiated forecasting.
In the context of the C.T, we would use it to define different thresholds for the same KPI, dependant on the product categorization.
For example, let's imagine we have two products, Product A and Product C. We are more forgiving on Product C than Product A. Therefore, if the C.T showed us that we have 10 alerts on Product A this would be a major issue, but if we had the same number of alerts on Product C it wouldn't be so much of an issue.
In this sense, product categorization would help us to determine where we should focus our attention and how we should operate.
What is the role of the Control Tower and Planning/ Re-planning?
We don't see this as so much of a planning instrument. We do not integrate external data from suppliers or customers, so it would not be used as a system of records for planning.
What is the role of the Control Tower and Analytics?
We would use the Control Tower's analytical capabilities to help us to gain a correct understanding of where we are and where we should correct our performance.
Following on from this, if we need to take action we would use the tool to help us facilitate collaboration across the different roles.
What is the role of the Control Tower and Performance Management?
In relation to performance management, we would use the Control Tower as a global repository of KPIs, relevant for S&OP.
What is the role of the Control Tower and Collaboration?
This is an important role, as only a few processes can be corrected without collaboration across a business.
We would use a Control Tower to help us to turn the findings that we obtain from our data into action. Therefore, it would not just facilitate interaction across certain groups, but would allow groups to share the same data and work together on the data. From working together, the group would be able to devise a plan to solve the problem, and they could then execute on this.
Other Blogs in this series:
To view Kenton Harmon's Blog (Supply Chain Product Manager at SAP) click the link below:
http://scn.sap.com/community/scm/blog/2016/04/11/contol-tower-qa-with-kent-harman
