The future of Logistics Control Towers – Ewals Cargo Care

 Overview

Company Description

Ewals Cargo Care (ECC) is a family owned transportation company, which is founded in 1906 by Alfons Ewals. The main office is found in Tegelen near Venlo. Besides this, Ewals has 29 other offices in Europe, which lead to a local presence in 14 European countries with approximately 2.000 employees.

The organization has grown into a strong international player. Our customers are offered a broad spectrum of logistics products ranging from full loads, part- and project loads, Control Tower set-ups and Value Added Logistics to global forwarding. Especially, but certainly not exclusively, we are known for our European multimodal network that includes more than 3500 Mega Huckepack XL(S) trailers.

The Control Tower (CT) Product within ECC is focused on the coordination and optimization of logistics supply chains of customers. The CT analyzes logistics data to define the strategic footprint of a customer, configure the tactical set-up and take operational responsibility for the execution of each individual transport. As an intern you have to interact with all roles in the organization (data analysts, carrier management, operations, IT) to get a good understanding of the concept.

Project Description

Project description:

Customers are searching for more visibility, resilience and sustainable supply chains due to supply chain disruptions in the recent years. Logistics Control Towers can enable these desires but many logistics companies claim to have CT solutions with a different meaning of the concept (i.e. 4PL, 3PL+, LLP) and with various approaches.

The market and characteristics of customers that could benefit from a CT product is relatively unknown as CT in the logistics industry are still marked as an innovative concept (Gartner, 2021). Additionally, customers are often not aware of the actual need of a CT; let alone its potential unexploited added value (transitioning the conventional perception towards value add).

There are 4 parts of this research:

Control Tower Value

The first part of the research is focused on the definition of CT and which value a CT can provide to a customer.

Market Investigation & Customer Target Groups

The next part is to conduct a market research on insights which customer characteristics like industry, geographic location, size etc. do fit to this product and to define possible target groups. Insights in the challenges these customers have is expected and an indication of the market size and potential is required.

Current & Future Control Tower Activities & Functionalities

Taking the customer target characteristics and the expected value, insights in the expectations of activities and/or functionalities of a CT are essential to be successful now but also in the future. The student is expected to outline the different activities/functionalities of a CT that are expected by customers at this point in time and in the future.

Ewals Control Tower

The last part should focus on the value proposition and the opportunity to improve this by adding/updating the current Ewals Control Tower playground. The student must draft a proposal/recommendation on this. The recommended pricing methodology must be included.

The overall coordination of the project will be done by the Director Control Tower.

Goals of the project:

The aim of the project is to define customer target groups for a Logistics Control Tower by knowing it’s value and to provide an improvement proposal to make the Ewals Control Tower ready for the future.

Deliverables:

1. Identification of Control Tower Value.
2. Market Analysis & Customer Target Group.
3. Control Tower Activities & Functionalities, now and in the future.
4. Ewals Control Tower recommendation.

Essential student knowledge:

• Supply chain Knowledge;
• Logistical Knowledge;
• Transportation Knowledge;

More information: escf@tue.nl