Design and Development of a Transportation Cost Control Tower with Integrated Service Level Monitoring: A Case Study on Carel Industries

Carel Industries, an Italian multinational headquartered in the province of Padua, has experienced substantial growth in recent years, driving the need for innovative tools to optimize logistics management. The increasing shipping volumes and the complexity of its global supply chain have highlighted the necessity of enhancing transport cost monitoring and the evaluation of courier service levels. This thesis focuses on the design, development, and implementation of a Control Tower to centralize and streamline the analysis of transport costs across Carel Industries’ main plants, including those in Italy, China, Croatia, the USA, Brazil, and other strategic plants. By leveraging data from courier invoices and plant-shared information, a centralized Excel-based system was developed to provide actionable insights. In addition to cost monitoring, the Control Tower integrates a system for evaluating service levels, calculated by comparing the delivery dates promised by couriers with the actual delivery dates to customers. A further objective of the project is to propose a refined approach to transport cost measurement. Currently, these costs are assessed as the ratio of transport expenses incurred by the company - for export shipments under Incoterms DAP (Delivered At Place), where the company covers the costs up to the customer, and import shipments under Incoterms EXW (Ex Works), where the customer covers the transport costs - to the company’s total turnover. This project explores an alternative model focused exclusively on turnover from DAP sales, considering only sales for which transport costs are directly incurred by the company. The study combines a thorough literature review on transport cost analysis, service levels, and Control Tower methodologies with a quantitative analysis of real-world data. The results provide Carel Industries with a practical tool for monitoring and optimizing transport costs, systematically evaluating the performance of logistics providers, and enhancing competitiveness through informed decision-making.