The world is at the intersection of two new trends. Firstly, all the organizations or companies are placing primacy on innovations and the second important trend is the continued growth in logistics outsourcing. If any innovation is a priority for the companies, it becomes a priority for the supply chain. Being more innovative is the priority for any company in the world to strengthen to capitalize on new opportunities.
A study conducted by the 2017 Global State of Logistics Outsourcing states that shippers are satisfied with the service rendered by third-party logistics partners. But due to the emergence of omnichannel and other supply channels, additional demands are generated that are posing new challenges to 3PLs. New automation is expected to play a key role in solving the issues. Shippers are aware of technologies that are needed to accomplish its goals. To stay ahead in the competition and to reach customer expectations, shippers should make use of 3PLs.
Annual third-party logistics study shows that there has been a positive relationship between shippers and 3PLs providers. Availability of greater data and capability of taking real-time decisions are thriving both the parties towards better results. Omnichannel has shifted consumer buying habits and fueled the increase in offering the choices and also created some critical issues as a shortage of skilled labor, economic instability, lack of strategic suppliers, and border crossing delays. Drastic changes are required to overcome these issues. But shippers are lagging in this regards. For five years, 42 percent of respondents hadn’t taken any steps to improve this agility, but recently, they showed openness to new ideas, setting the stage for innovations by 3PLs.
Investments in innovations of technologies are the heart of any attempt to adjust the customer trends which include enterprise resource planning, warehouse management systems, and supply chain visibility tools. Tools for mitigating brand of supply-chain risk are plenty. These include visibility application and predictive analytics. Shippers and 3PLs are placing a new emphasis on the sharing of data. These consider the data available, as essential to building stable relationships. Since plenty of 3PLs are available in the world market, it is paramount to go for the best tool after researching past laurels and present reputation.
