LYNBROOK, N.Y., Oct. 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Unilog.SC, a global supply chain orchestration and execution company, today announced the release of its October 2026 Industry Research Report, Your control tower sees everything. That is the problem. The article explains why service parts control towers that give planners full visibility across their networks often generate more alerts than teams can act on, and the role service and supply chain teams play in identifying the exceptions that put customer uptime and service contracts at risk.
Typical parts move fewer than five times a year, cost more than $1,000 each, and are positioned close to customer sites to meet contracts that measure waiting time in hours. According to the report, four of five global equipment makers surveyed were seeing between 300 and 2,000 control tower alerts per week, with only 15 to 50 percent judged high priority, and managing the gap between the plan and reality took up 40 to 90 percent of planning teams’ time. The report finds that these alerts are mostly used to react after a stockout rather than prevent one, in part because alerts are generated automatically while every response is still handled manually.
“The usual story about control towers is that companies cannot see their networks, but for service parts, that is the wrong story,” said Eyal Yossef, VP Supply Chain Solutions at Unilog.SC. “The control tower sees everything and treats every alert the same. Its real job is to pick out, from the thousands of things that are slightly wrong, the few that will stop a customer’s machine, early enough that moving a part between two stocking locations can still solve the problem. That takes a short list, a clear owner, and a decision made before the week starts, not during it.”
Key findings include:
- Most interventions happen after the stockout. All five companies surveyed relied heavily on rushing parts from a central warehouse after a stockout, while only one did so extensively before the stockout, when the control tower could already see it coming.
- Two interventions deliver most of the improvement. In a simulation built on a global IT hardware company’s network, moving parts between local warehouses before a shortage raised same-day fill rates by about 3 points from a base near 95 percent, and sending parts early from the central warehouse raised them by about 4 percent. Expediting repairs and reserving stock for premium customers did not improve results.
- Interventions are most effective closest to the customer. Roughly 30 percent of transfers between local warehouses delivered 80 percent of the improvement, while actions taken further upstream left too many steps between the decision and the customer’s machine.
- The return and repair loop should trigger purchasing. When a failed part is not returned or cannot be repaired, notifying purchasing immediately so a replacement order starts early improved fill rates at negligible cost.
- Alerts should be prioritized by the customer contract at risk. Service contracts are written at the customer and system level, yet day-to-day decisions are still made part by part. An alert that a part is low in one location does not show which customer has already used most of its downtime allowance for the quarter.
The report includes an exception library outlining ten service parts exceptions and the first move for each, from forward stocking locations at risk of running out before the next replenishment to customs holds on cross-border transfers and customers close to their contract limits. Among the recommended first steps are comparing how many alerts the control tower raised last week with how many a person actually opened, splitting last month’s interventions into those made before and after a stockout, ranking alerts by the contract at risk, connecting the return and repair loop to purchasing, and automating decisions for low-cost, fast-moving parts so planners can focus on the expensive ones.
The article also examines the role of logistics providers in global service networks. The nearest stocking location is often across a border, which turns a transfer between warehouses into a customs operation that requires an importer of record and clearance time. A service parts lead logistics provider that runs both the forward stocking locations and the cross-border flow can identify which transfers will actually arrive in time to protect the customer commitment.
The full October 2026 Industry Research Report, “Your control tower sees everything. That is the problem,” is available here.
To learn more about Unilog.SC, visit Unilog.SC.
About Unilog.SC
Unilog.SC is a global supply chain orchestration and execution company delivering end-to-end logistics and fulfillment solutions through the combination of human expertise and its advanced Logivice™ control tower platform and Ucontrol™ real-time visibility and smart tracking platform. Operating across 500+ active storage and DC locations worldwide, Unilog.SC provides real-time visibility, inventory and order management, reverse logistics, and a broad range of value-added and global trade services including kitting, relabeling, repairs, compliance support and Global Trade Services. Recognized by Gartner® as one of the top 17 global service providers included in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Fourth-Party Logistics (4PL), Unilog helps organizations simplify complex global operations, improve resilience, and scale with confidence.
Serving critical and demanding industries such as high-tech, cybersecurity, medical equipment, telecommunications, automotive, semiconductors, digital and 3D printing, data centers, and energy, Unilog.SC combines advanced technology with experienced supply chain professionals to transform operational complexity into business growth. Headquartered in Lynbrook, New York, Unilog.SC enables organizations worldwide to achieve greater visibility, agility, and execution across their supply chains.
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