Supply Chain Control Tower: Command center in turbulent times
An automotive interior manufacturer enhances the transparency and resilience of its global value chain network with EFESO
Alarmed by a surge in task force situations within supply chain management, a Tier-1 supplier identified end-to-end transparency across its global value chain network as a top priority. Together with EFESO, the company captured and consolidated its data and value flows within just four months in a Supply Chain Control Tower (SCCT). Acting as a central “command center,” the tool enables automated analysis of all supply chain events relevant to the business.
Challenge
A Tier-1 supplier identifies transparency across its global value chain network as a top priority. A new technology is intended to consolidate all SCM-related information to enable more proactive risk management.
MoreEFESO approach
Together with EFESO, the company establishes a Supply Chain Control Tower within its SCM organization. From initial data collection and analysis to first deployment, the implementation takes less than six months.
MoreLessons learned
Tandem collaboration is essential for project success: supply chain planners should clearly define for IT experts which information they require and which steps are currently performed manually.
MoreEFESO success model
The project team derived the requirements for the SCCT directly from the day-to-day operations of the company’s supply chain team. Based on concrete workflows, four user stories were developed.
MoreKeeping risks and disruptions on the radar at all times
An automotive interior manufacturer is well established as a Tier-1 supplier with a highly diversified Product portfolio. With high-quality interior components such as modular seating systems, door panels, and cockpit surfaces, the company supplies OEM locations around the world. Accordingly, its supply chain spans international markets: seat foams are sourced from suppliers in Poland, electronic control units from Malaysia, leather covers from Brazil, and decorative components from Italy. Final assembly takes place at 52 production sites, including Germany, Mexico, and China, each located in close proximity to customers.
This complex structure entails numerous risks. For example, a port strike in South America can delay leather deliveries, while political tensions in Asia may affect the availability of electronic components. In this case, a wave of global trade restrictions continuously triggered new task force situations in supply chain management. The company realized that, across more than 3,000 affected products, it lacked the necessary end-to-end transparency along its supply chains. For instance, it was not possible to quickly identify which components were used in which finished products or which suppliers they originated from. Information on internal dependencies, production stages, and total lead times was also not systematically accessible.
The company’s CPO and COO recognized this critical situation early on and understood how dangerous such a lack of transparency could become in future, more severe scenarios—for example, when multiple disruptions or failures occur simultaneously, creating a “perfect storm” that rapidly reduces delivery capability to a minimum for an indefinite period. It also became evident that even traditional challenges were handled inefficiently: when a supplier reported a critical material shortage, internal root cause analysis often took weeks.
More than 3,000 products across 52 production sites result in a lack of transparency within the supply chain.
As a result, management identified “transparency” as a critical success factor. Based on positive experiences from previous SCM projects, the company engaged EFESO to enable immediate visibility into which products and customers are affected by disruptions within the value chain network. The focus was to establish a Supply Chain Control Tower (SCCT) as a central technology within the SCM and procurement organization within four months—and thus quickly realize the following benefits:
- A centralized, digital view of all relevant supply chain data. This enables employees to identify risks early, proactively manage bottlenecks, and make informed decisions in real time, i.e., in direct response to events. Especially for automotive suppliers that must meet tightly scheduled just-in-time or just-in-sequence deliveries, this level of transparency is critical to avoiding production stoppages at OEMs.
- Transparency also fosters more efficient and effective collaboration with partners, improves planning accuracy at production sites and across the network, and—particularly in crisis situations—enhances responsiveness and supports more resilient network structures.
- Companies operating without effective risk management typically experience significant margin losses (often referred to as a “burning platform”). In addition to the benefits outlined above, the Supply Chain Control Tower enables KPI-relevant improvements such as lower transportation costs, reduced reliance on air freight, lower relocation costs, and optimized inventory levels.
Focusing task force actions on what matters most
In this case, the overarching objective was to establish the required end-to-end transparency through the SCCT and thereby identify risks at an early stage—ideally even before they materialize. For the company, it was particularly attractive to use this technology to manage its material flows more precisely and strengthen overall network resilience. At the same time, the goal was to reduce both the effort required for manual analyses and the number of task force interventions. Looking ahead, the SCCT is intended to be enhanced with AI-supported functionalities and automated recommendations for action, enabling continuous development of the approach toward a Copilot-like capability.
To integrate the Control Tower into the company’s technological and organizational infrastructure, a joint project team was established with EFESO, consisting of five consultants and 15 company employees, primarily from the supply chain team and the central IT department. The consulting team was divided into supply chain management experts and IT specialists from EFESO’s technology partner aioneers, whose development team simultaneously built the backend and frontend throughout the course of the project. Within four months, this team executed a project plan—from initial data collection and analysis to a fully operational Supply Chain Control Tower—characterized by the following key elements:
Methodology and Approach
The project team began with a comprehensive requirements assessment, followed by a detailed data analysis, and then developed the SCCT system architecture based on these insights. Subsequently, the required tools were configured, and the solution was implemented step by step. The entire project followed an agile approach, working in clearly defined sprints to validate results quickly and continuously refine the solution.
Data Architecture and Data Sources
The automotive supplier already had a broad and well-developed data foundation, including logistics and distribution data, S&OP planning data, PLM information, and SAP Business Warehouse as the central data platform. The Supply Chain Control Tower leverages these existing data sources, remodels them, and integrates them into a consistent, unified data model (see Figure 1). This provides users with an integrated and harmonized view of all relevant supply chain information.
Technical Infrastructure
The technical backend of the Control Tower was fully built in the Azure Cloud. All data processing is also carried out there—scalable, secure, and cloud-native. For visualization and the frontend, the project team used Qlik Sense, enabling an intuitive representation of complex data structures. The goal of the implementation was to create a fully functional frontend reliably supplied via clearly defined data pipelines.
Visualizing data flows and solving problems
During the implementation of the project, the following lessons learned proved to be particularly critical to success:
Establish end-to-end transparency early on!
Without a consistent view of products, bills of materials, and supply chains, delays arise that can cost weeks in critical situations. A Supply Chain Control Tower is the ideal tool to analyze even complex dependencies within seconds.
Develop use cases together with operational experts!
The most effective functionalities of a company-specific Control Tower emerge when supply chain planners clearly define for IT experts which information they need and which steps are currently performed manually. This close “tandem” collaboration also led in this project to a system that solves real problems instead of merely visualizing data.
Build the system iteratively—and plan for continuous development from the start!
A Control Tower is not a one-time project, but an evolving system of data, logic, and automation. Experience shows that its full potential only unfolds after go-live, when additional data sources are integrated, logic is refined, and optimization functionalities are added.
During a raw material crisis, the Control Tower identified all affected components and products within seconds.
Keeping material flows in sync
The project team derived the functional requirements for the Control Tower directly from the day-to-day operations of the company’s supply chain team. This was based on concrete workflows—for example, how planners manually consolidated data from different systems and which decision-relevant information was missing in the process. On this basis, the project team developed four key user stories to deliver tangible results immediately after the SCCT go-live, based on specific operational processes:
- Identify demand changes along the supply chain
- Manage and control overstock
- Identify material availability issues
- Respond rapidly to supply chain disruptions
The SCCT system developed based on these user stories comprises 100 data tables, more than 600 data points, 120 KPIs, 40 defined trigger points—such as demand changes of more than 10% per week—and 35 acceptance criteria. The objective of all use cases is to reduce backorders, increase response speed, and keep material flows in sync.
Best Practice: User Stories
Concrete examples from the project highlight the impact: An analysis of routing in Spain revealed inefficient transport routes via additional distribution centers, the optimization of which led to significant reductions in inventory levels and freight costs. In addition, during a raw material crisis, the Control Tower identified all affected components and products at the push of a button—starting from a spend of just €0.9 million, a risk exposure of €1.8 billion was identified, affecting 700 finished products. What previously took weeks was now delivered by the system in just three seconds.
Project Progress & Steering Communication
Project progress was tracked through several steering committees to ensure continuous alignment with management and key stakeholders. These SteerCos regularly addressed project objectives and targeted benefits such as cost reductions, inventory optimization, and EBIT impact, provided transparency on the status of data integration, and documented progress in the technical implementation. Interim results related to the use cases were also systematically presented. As early as the second SteerCo, the Control Tower was fully functional and could be demonstrated live. The third SteerCo ultimately served for final acceptance and the presentation of the completed frontend.
Frontend, Alerts & Visualizations
The project team developed a frontend that presents all relevant information through clearly structured visualizations. These include global material flow maps, KPI dashboards for inventory levels, trigger-based alerts in the “Findings Monitor,” and detailed views of affected components or customers. Critical events are immediately highlighted through red alert indicators, enabling users to drill down into relevant details and analyze root causes. For the first time, these dashboards provide an integrated view across all stages of the supply chain, forming the basis for fast and well-informed decision-making.