The main challenges of implementing a SCCT

There are several possible risks of developing & implementing a Supply chain control tower (SCCT). The following main challenges are:

• Change management: this means how an organization manages a major internal (and possibly external) difference that changes the working systems and working styles of the employees
• External parties’ connection to the SCCT issues: lack of process standardization both internally and externally due to misalignment between software and real business needs
• The need of gaining partners’ trust (e.g. supplier, carrier) for standardized processes: when implementing a SCCT, at some points it requires a company to integrate its external partners’ systems, which depends on the level of trust and business relationships with the partners
• Poor data quality, and poor external system integration: if a company doesn’t have proper data quality at the beginning of the implementation, the outputs from the SCCT cannot show useful insights. It could be the case that different departments within the company have distinct ways of managing their data (e.g. digitally or manually), so lack of data standardization is also a barrier for the SCCT implementation
• Budgetary constraints: this indicates that a company has financial limits to develop & implement a SCCT
• Lack of top management commitment, and goals conflicts, which spread throughout the implementation: it is highly important that top management should commit to this implementation project and be visible to all employees that they lead the change
• IT risks: some examples are system breakdowns, temporary lack of supply chain visibility, etc.
• Language issues: when a company would like to implement a SCCT to another branch in different countries, language could be a risk since the language used in the SCCT needs to be adapted to the destination country, in a way that doesn’t create any different interpretation possibility. Furthermore, when training employees in the destination country, not all shop-floor employees can speak English or the initial language, so it is crucial to use the destination country language for most effective trainings. 

Series Supply Chain Control Tower