Supply Chain Control Tower Skills for Logistics Managers Training Course

Course overview

Logistics managers are increasingly expected to respond to late shipments, capacity constraints, inventory exceptions and supplier disruptions before service levels deteriorate. Yet many teams still work from separate transport, warehouse, order and supplier reports, making it difficult to identify the few exceptions that require action, assign ownership and measure whether interventions worked. This course equips managers to operate a supply chain control tower as a decision and coordination capability rather than as another dashboard. Participants learn how to turn operational data into prioritised actions across inbound, warehousing, transport and customer delivery flows.

The course covers control tower operating models, end-to-end visibility requirements, KPI design, alert thresholds, exception management and cross-functional escalation. Participants work with practical measures including OTIF, perfect order rate, dwell time, inventory-at-risk, forecast error, transport capacity utilisation and order-cycle variance. They learn to map data sources from ERP, TMS, WMS and supplier systems; configure exception categories; build a control-tower scorecard; and use root-cause methods to distinguish symptoms from operational causes. The programme also addresses governance: who owns an alert, when to escalate, how to run daily control-tower huddles and how to document corrective actions.

Instructor-led sessions combine worked examples, Excel and Power BI exercises, control-tower incident simulations and group decision-making workshops. Participants analyse a realistic multi-site disruption case involving delayed inbound materials, constrained warehouse capacity and at-risk customer orders. By the end of the week, each participant leaves with a tailored Control Tower Operating Blueprint containing KPI definitions, an exception-priority matrix, escalation rules, daily meeting cadence and a 90-day implementation plan for their own logistics environment.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map end-to-end logistics data flows across ERP, TMS, WMS, supplier and carrier sources
• Define control-tower KPIs using measures such as OTIF, dwell time, inventory-at-risk and order-cycle variance
• Build an exception-priority matrix using service impact, financial exposure, urgency and controllability criteria
• Configure alert thresholds and escalation rules for transport, inventory, warehouse and supplier exceptions
• Apply root-cause analysis using 5 Whys, Pareto analysis and process mapping to recurring disruptions
• Create a Power BI control-tower scorecard that highlights actionable logistics exceptions
• Run a structured daily control-tower huddle with ownership, due dates and corrective-action tracking
• Produce a 90-day Control Tower Operating Blueprint for a logistics function

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Logistics Managers — who must coordinate transport, warehousing and order fulfilment performance across multiple teams
• Supply Chain Managers — who need a practical operating model for managing end-to-end exceptions
• Transport Managers — who must respond quickly to carrier delays, capacity constraints and service failures
• Warehouse Managers — who need visibility of inbound disruption, dwell time and fulfilment risk
• Customer Service and Order Fulfilment Managers — who must protect promised delivery dates and communicate recovery actions
• Supply Chain Analysts — who build operational reports and need to convert data into prioritised decisions

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand the basic flow of goods and information from supplier through warehouse, transport and customer delivery. Familiarity with common logistics measures such as on-time delivery, inventory levels, lead time and transport cost is helpful, as is routine use of spreadsheets for filtering, sorting and simple formulas. Exposure to an ERP, TMS or WMS is beneficial but not essential. No prior control-tower implementation experience, data-science background, coding ability or Power BI expertise is required. Complete beginners should expect to work with realistic datasets and learn the core terminology before applying the methods.

Training methodology

The course is delivered through instructor-led demonstrations, facilitated discussions and hands-on work with realistic logistics datasets. Participants use Excel and Power BI to examine late-order, inventory, carrier and warehouse exception data, then test response choices in a multi-site disruption simulation. Small groups design alert rules, assign escalation ownership and run a mock daily control-tower huddle. Each day closes with an applied workshop that adds a component to the participant’s Control Tower Operating Blueprint, culminating in a peer-reviewed 90-day implementation plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Control Tower Foundations and Operating Model

• Control tower roles: visibility, decision support and coordinated intervention
• End-to-end logistics process mapping from supplier release to proof of delivery
• Control-tower maturity assessment for people, process, data and technology
• Decision rights and accountability across logistics, procurement, customer service and operations
• Data-source mapping for ERP, TMS, WMS, carrier portals and supplier updates
• SCOR Digital Standard metrics for reliability, responsiveness and asset management
• Daily, weekly and monthly control-tower management cadences

Workshop: Participants map their current logistics information flows and produce a control-tower stakeholder and decision-rights map.

Day 2: KPIs, Visibility and Exception Prioritisation

• KPI hierarchy from executive service measures to operational exception indicators
• OTIF, perfect order rate, dwell time, order-cycle time and inventory-at-risk calculations
• Leading and lagging indicators for transport, warehouse and supplier performance
• Data-quality checks for missing milestones, duplicate orders and inconsistent master data
• Exception taxonomy for late inbound, capacity, stock, quality and delivery failures
• Impact-versus-urgency scoring for exception prioritisation
• Alert threshold design using tolerances, service commitments and financial exposure

Workshop: Participants calculate logistics KPIs from a dataset and produce an exception-priority matrix for a daily control-tower queue.

Day 3: Dashboards and Actionable Logistics Analytics

• Power BI data model concepts for orders, shipments, inventory and milestone events
• Excel Power Query techniques for cleansing and combining logistics data
• Control-tower dashboard layout for executive, operational and exception views
• Drill-through analysis from OTIF variance to shipment and order-line detail
• Pareto analysis of recurring service failures and delay reasons
• Trend analysis for dwell time, capacity utilisation and backlog ageing
• Dashboard governance including refresh timing, metric ownership and version control

Workshop: Participants build a Power BI control-tower scorecard with exception filters, KPI cards and a drill-down view for at-risk orders.

Day 4: Response Management and Cross-Functional Escalation

• 5 Whys and fishbone analysis for logistics service failures
• Corrective-action and preventive-action registers for recurring exceptions
• Escalation paths for carrier failure, supplier delay, warehouse congestion and stockout risk
• Daily control-tower huddle agenda, roles and decision log
• Recovery planning for late orders including reallocation, expediting and customer communication
• Scenario evaluation using service impact, margin exposure and recovery cost
• Supplier and carrier performance conversations supported by evidence

Workshop: Teams manage a simulated disruption involving delayed inbound materials, warehouse congestion and priority customer orders, producing an escalation and recovery plan.

Day 5: Implementation Planning and Control Tower Governance

• Control Tower Operating Blueprint structure and implementation sequence
• Minimum viable control-tower scope for a single site, lane or product family
• KPI dictionary design with definitions, formulas, owners and review frequency
• RACI matrix for alert triage, investigation, approval and closure
• Technology selection criteria for SAP Integrated Business Planning, Kinaxis RapidResponse and Power BI
• Change-management actions for adopting new daily decision routines
• Ninety-day roadmap with milestones, risks, benefits and adoption measures

Workshop: Participants complete and present a 90-day Control Tower Operating Blueprint for their own logistics function or a supplied case organisation.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, SAP Integrated Business Planning, ASCM SCOR Digital Standard

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions