Title: Making 3PL effective in agile supply chains

Authors: Akhilesh Barve, Arun Kanda, Ravi Shankar

Addresses: IILM Academy of Higher Learning, Greater Noida, 201306, UP, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT-Delhi, Hauz Khas 110016, New Delhi, India. ' Department of Management Studies, IIT-Delhi, Hauz Khas 110016, New Delhi, India

Abstract: Customer responsiveness is a key to success in today|s markets. With the emergence of a business era that embraces change as one of its major characteristics, manufacturing success and survival are becoming more and more difficult to ensure. The emphasis is on adaptability to change in the business environment and on addressing market and customer needs proactively. A supply chain adapts the changes if it is agile in nature. Agility is all about creating that responsiveness and mastering the uncertainty. In this article, the enablers of a Third Party Logistics (3PL) provider have been identified and interpretive structural modelling has been used to evolve relationships among 3PL enablers. A key to find this modelling is that 3PL are increasingly being used towards making supply chains agile. The study concludes with a discussion on these enablers and the managerial implications.

Keywords: agility; interpretive structural modelling; ISM; agile supply chains; supply chain management; SCM; third party logistics; 3PL enablers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2008.015927

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2008 Vol.4 No.1, pp.40 - 60

Published online: 02 Dec 2007 *

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