BMW's digital strategy for building resilience through control towers and greater visibility
BMW Manufacturing's Julia Fuchs joined Automotive Logistics on the Red Sofa at ALSC Global 2026 to discuss four essential requirements to achieve true end-to-end visibility in today's digital world.
At BMW Plant Spartanburg, where more than 1,500 vehicles are assembled each day, "a reliable supply chain is key" – that's what Julia Fuchs, general manager for material and transport control and delivery assurance at BMW Manufacturing, emphasised recently on Automotive Logistics' famous Red Sofa.
With suppliers, carriers and partners around the world, end-to-end supply chain visibility is critical for BMW to ensure resilient and efficient operations. She highlighted the need for "connected data across suppliers, carriers, partners – all the way to BMW" in order to achieve these goals.
On top of that, she noted that control towers can make a big difference when it comes to understanding what is happening throughout the network – for example where there are deviations and whether or not those deviations are likely to have a significant impact on the supply chain.
She also referenced playbooks and how having the right processes and governance is crucial when managing deviations.
The final layer Fuchs highlighted as essential for complete end-to-end visibility is automation. "We are constantly looking for opportunities to automate more and more processes to help our experts focus on what really matters," she said.
Watch the full Red Sofa interview with Julia Fuchs to learn all about BMW's digitalisation strategy at Plant Spartanburg and how its control towers are moving from simply reporting to now supporting decision-making, offering both real-time and predictive insights.
