Learn in this case study
- How end-to-end supply chain transparency and data-driven decision making can be realized in just a few weeks
- How our client was able to see to the global impacts of the Nexperia semiconductor crisis to its supply chain at just one click
- How Supply Chain Control Towers connect data from various systems to increase business resilience, decrease costs and turn the supply chain into a strategic asset
The situation of our client: Constant Disruptions and Volatility in an ever-complex Automotive Supply Chain Network
Our client is one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, generating multi-billion-euro revenues and serving thousands of customers globally.
With multiple production plants and a portfolio of more than 40,000 finished goods, the company operates a highly complex global supply chain.
In today’s volatile automotive landscape, supply chain resilience isn’t just a goal, it’s a strategic necessity. However, our client was facing multiple challenges that limited its ability to respond effectively to disruption and volatility. Rising costs for premium freight and inventories have become a major concern.
At the same time, demand had become increasingly unpredictable. Limited transparency across the end-to-end supply chain made it difficult to anticipate demand shifts or react quickly to changes in customer requirements. The supplier network was another critical risk factor. High dependency on vulnerable components — such as semiconductors and rare earth materials — exposed the organization to significant operational disruptions.
Underlying all of this was an IT landscape that had not kept pace with the growing complexity of the business. Outdated, fragmented systems and heavy reliance on manual Excel-based analyses slowed down decision-making.
The Approach: Enable End-to-End Transparency and Data-driven Decision Making with a Supply Chain Control Tower
To address these challenges, we partnered with the client to design and implement a digital Supply Chain Control Tower— a centralized, cloud-based platform providing full visibility, transparency, and control across the entire supply chain.
Figure 1: Landing page of the Supply Chain Control Tower – visualizing the full supply chain network consisting of suppliers, intracompany network and customers.
The core of the solution was a unified data foundation. We integrated hundreds of source systems and more than 50 datasets into a common semantic model, connecting data across suppliers, logistics, bills of materials, forecasts, actuals, purchasing volumes, and customer orders. This eliminated data silos and created a single source of truth for supply chain decision-making.
The Supply Chain Control Tower enables the organization to improve the supply chain from strategy to execution: working on a preventive design of the supply chain (e.g. by identifying single source risks), through proactive control(e.g. by anticipating rising demand), as well as fast, and data-driven reaction to unforeseen events like natural disasters or geopolitical disruptions.
“For the first time, we have achieved visibility and transparency we never had before. This enables us to run structural improvements, significantly reduce inventories and costs and empowers us to move from reactive management to proactive orchestration.”
Head of Supply Chain Management, Automotive Tier-1 Supplier
During the Nexperia semiconductor crisis, the Control Tower exposes with one click how the spend on semiconductors translates into sales risk across multiple components, finished goods, and customers. The rapid transparency made it possible to navigate through the crisis much more efficiently and effectively.
The Supply Chain Control Tower acts as a digital twin of the supply chain, enabling planners and managers to understand how materials, capacities, inventories, and customer demands interact across multiple tiers and locations. Automatedinsights and intelligent alerts replace manual analysis, highlighting risks and deviations in real time.
Pre-configured dashboards provide role-specific views covering key areas such as:
- Supplier risks, with critical issues (e.g., semiconductor shortages like in the recent Nexperia crisis) flagged instantly
- Network transparency, including pass-through stages and bottlenecks
- Inventory levels, with automated understock and overstock alerts
- Customer backorders, combining actuals with forward-looking projections
- Demand shifts, through continuous comparison of forecasts and sales orders
Beyond immediate transparency, the Supply Chain Control Tower also establishes a scalable foundation for advanced, AI-driven analytics.
Figure 2: Findings monitor of the Supply Chain Control Tower – automated, data-driven findings are derived to improve cost, service levels and inventories along the supply chain
“This is more than a dashboard. It’s a strategic platform that empowers us to move from reactive management to proactive orchestration.”
Head of Supply Chain Digitalization, Automotive Tier-1 Supplier
The Results: Measurable Impact through Faster Decisions, Lower Costs, and Higher Supply Chain Resilience
The Supply Chain Control Tower was delivered in record time — just 15 sprint weeks —demonstrating that impactful transformation does not have to take years.
The client now benefits from true end-to-end supply chain visibility across suppliers, plants, inventories, and customers. Decision-making has become faster, fact-based, and proactive rather than reactive.
The solution is highly scalable and performance-optimized, ensuring it can grow alongside the business and support future complexity.
Early results already show strong financial impact:
- € 15 million+ potential inventory reduction identified
- Significant cost savings across freight and logistics, including premium freight
- Improved inventory turnover ratios
Most importantly, the client has taken a decisive step toward building a more resilient, transparent, and future-ready supply chain — turning volatility from a risk into a competitive advantage.
Get in touch with our team for deeper insights and explore what’s possible for your business.
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