Work queues

Work queues streamline the process of detecting, managing, and resolving supply chain issues by combining data from various sources into a single, unified view. Sample work queues are provided as starting points. You can extend and customize the samples or create new work queues to pinpoint and address custom business needs.

Overview

A work queue consists of a list of potential issues that users can easily review, assign, and address. These issues are automatically identified and prioritized by the platform based on configuration by your organization administrator during onboarding, and can be updated as needed. When you star a work queue, it appears on the Overview tab of the Dashboard so that you can easily access it.

The following sample work queues are provided as starting points. You can update them or create custom work queues to pinpoint and address other disruptions to your organization’s supply chain.

If your organization is entitled to Control Tower, you have access to the following sample work queues:

Inventory approaching out of stock

A list of inventory with an on-hand quantity that is less than the configured threshold.
Out of stock inventory

A list of inventory with an on-hand quantity of less than 1.
Inventory with predicted out of stock dates

Inventory with one or more predicted out of stock events in the next 30 days.
Shipments with a late estimated delivery

A list of inbound supply shipments with an estimated time of arrival that occurs after the committed time of arrival.

If your organization is entitled to Transparent Supply, you have access to the following sample work queues:

Shelf life risk

A list of products that are considered at-risk of expiration due to a supply chain delay.
Data quality - Product definition missing

Data compliance for events that are missing product master data.
Data quality - Location definition missing

Data compliance for events that are missing location master data.
Data quality - Product origin untraceable

Data compliance for products that cannot be traced to their origin due to missing event data.

The sample work queues are provided as starting points. You can update them or create custom work queues to pinpoint and address custom business needs. For more information, see Defining work queues.

Work items

When you click a work queue name, a list of items in the work queue that are referred to as work items are displayed. The items in each queue are organized into two tabs based on their current status: Open and Closed.

The Open tab contains work items with a status other than Closed, including Not started, Resolution started, and Resolution pending.
- Items have a Not started status when no action was taken on them yet.
- Items have a Resolution started status when someone in your organization started a resolution for them.
- Items have a Resolution pending status when they are waiting for the remaining steps in their resolution to be completed and the data in Control Tower to reflect these changes. They do not require any action from you or other members of your organization.
The Closed tab contains work items with a Closed status. Control Tower automatically moves work items to the Closed tab when it detects that they no longer meet the criteria of the work queue. You are also able to manually close them yourself at any time.

Items in a work queue can be automatically populated by the Supply Chain Intelligence Suite or you can upload them using an API instead. If you use an external source to identify work queue items, upload the work queue items to the Supply Chain Intelligence Suite by using the Create a work item API or the upsertWorkItem mutation in the GraphQL API.

Work item details

Each row inside a work queue contains a brief summary of a work item. Click the ID of an item to go to the Resolutions page where you can learn more about the issue and examine potential resolutions for it. You can use the Notes widget in the Work item details section to add comments about the work item and document the root cause analysis of the issue. This widget contains notes that were added to the work item while in its current queue, including notes from any previous times that it was in the same queue. You can also view a complete history of all actions that were taken on the item while in the queue inside the Activity log. Activity includes assignment changes, status updates, and notes that were added, along with a timestamp of when they occurred.

Resolutions

Sample resolutions are provided as starting points. You can extend and customize the samples or create new resolutions to address custom business needs.

On the Resolutions page of a work item, you can see a list of resolutions and the workflow that's associated with each one. A workflow is a set of logical steps that lead a person or a team through a task to completion or resolution. For example, you can transfer inventory where needed, select an alternative supplier for a part that might arrive late, or expedite a high-priority order. Work queues promote more visibility into these typical business processes throughout your organization to streamline issue resolution based on established courses of action.

Two types of resolutions exist: best practice recommendations and actionable workflows.

Both resolution types contain information about each step that is necessary to complete a resolution, but with actionable workflows, you can take steps directly within the Supply Chain Intelligence Suite.

Sample resolutions are provided as starting points. You can extend and customize the samples or create new resolutions to address custom business needs. For more information, see Creating resolutions.

Actionable workflows

If your organization admin configured an actionable workflow for a resolution, a Get started button is present within the resolution.

You can create new actionable workflows to address custom business needs. For more information, see Creating actionable workflows.

Asking the Research Assistant for help

The Research Assistant uses the power of the Supply Chain Assistant so that you can ask for more information from the work item's resolution page. To do so, expand the Research tab after drilling down to the work queue item details.

The Research Assistant provides you with guiding questions called bookmarks that help you reach a resolution.

For example, if you expand the Research tab for any of the default Control Tower work queues, the Research Assistant shows the following bookmarks:

Check on hand inventory.
Check inbound shipments.
Check inbound orders that are not yet shipped.
Check planned sales orders.

Or, if you are using the sample actionable workflows, Transfer inventory or Place new order, the Research Assistant displays these bookmarks:

Check other locations that have on hand inventory.
Check in transit or inbound shipments.
Check inbound orders that are not shipped yet (open purchase orders).

Click a bookmark from the side of the screen to open the answer in the Research Assistant.

Extending the Research Assistant with custom work queues

You can create and configure a new Watson Assistant skill that takes advantage of the Research Assistant features. For more information, see Extending the Research Assistant.