TY - GEN
T1 - Fourth Party Logistics in a Digital Future
AU - Schramm, Hans-Joachim
AU - Czaja, Carolin Nicole
AU - Dittrich, Michael
AU - Mentschel, Matthias
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - This paper aims at analysing the potential future of the 4PL concept based on expert opinions with special regard to the influence of digitalization. Service arrangements, provider capabilities and benefits resulting from a 4PL partnership are compared in current and future configurations.The research follows a mixed methods approach with semi-structured interviews followed by an expert panel. This builds the basis for an online questionnaire to inquire on important future aspects for the 4PL concept by a sample of respondents from multinational companies. Our results show a clear trend away from simply organising transportation and logistics activities towards the provision of an IT platform as well as further service activities such as planning, analytics and monitoring. Along with this, IT capabilities appear to be an important differentiator for 4PL providers in the future. Moreover, relationships between 4PL providers and their clients become closer and more strategic, which leads to a customer valuing not only direct cost reductions but rather improvements resulting from optimized operations through superior analysis and planning functions.
AB - This paper aims at analysing the potential future of the 4PL concept based on expert opinions with special regard to the influence of digitalization. Service arrangements, provider capabilities and benefits resulting from a 4PL partnership are compared in current and future configurations.The research follows a mixed methods approach with semi-structured interviews followed by an expert panel. This builds the basis for an online questionnaire to inquire on important future aspects for the 4PL concept by a sample of respondents from multinational companies. Our results show a clear trend away from simply organising transportation and logistics activities towards the provision of an IT platform as well as further service activities such as planning, analytics and monitoring. Along with this, IT capabilities appear to be an important differentiator for 4PL providers in the future. Moreover, relationships between 4PL providers and their clients become closer and more strategic, which leads to a customer valuing not only direct cost reductions but rather improvements resulting from optimized operations through superior analysis and planning functions.
M3 - Contribution to conference proceedings
SN - 978-91-7753-337-5
SP - 626
EP - 641
BT - NOFOMA 2017 - The 29th NOFOMA Conference "Taking on Grand Challenges"
A2 - Daniel Hellström, Joakim Kembro and Hajnalka Bodnar, null
PB - Lund University
CY - Lund
ER -