A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the flexibility of the logistics provider and how the transport provider plays an important role in supply chain operations, ensuring that they run smoothly and are able to move goods quickly from one place to another. However, relying on a third-party provider for logistics, or 3PL in short, is not without caveats. While there are significant benefits, there are also a number of challenges. That is what Al Ansari and Batoul Modarress investigated in a paper titled Challenges of outsourcing logistics to third-party providers. Here they identify four major challenges a company faces when choosing the right 3PL: current requirements, future growth, information exchange and security.

Continue reading →