The COVID supply chain crisis acted like a stress test,
revealing many structural problems in supply chains. Executives
learned that they had less visibility, less real-time information,
and less resilience in their supply chains than they had thought.
AlixPartners Disruption Index found that today
eight out of ten say they need to diversify their supply base;
similar numbers say they need to invest in AI solutions to combat
supply chain disruptions, and three in five worry that supply chain
disruption will put them so far behind their competition that they
can't catch up.
A big insight from the crisis: Supply chains need control
towers-the capability to track components, work-in-progress, and
finished goods in detail and in real-time, to spot problems fast so
they can be fixed fast, and to monitor costs and payments along
with physical goods. The design of a control tower will vary
according to the configuration of a company's supply chain, but
a conceptual view of
