Managing the Outsourced Supply Chain Market Analysis of Major Third Party Logistics Providers on the European Market

Abstract: Problem What growth potential and possibilities for development exists for Third Party
Logistics companies on the European market? What are the Key Success Factors?
What threats exists? How have the leading Third Party Logistics providers in
Europe attained their market position and what internal and external resources can
they exploit for further development?
Purpose Investigate and explore prominent Key Success Factors within the Third party
Logistics industry on the European market. Clarify what resources and capabilities
need to be successfully managed in order to achieve competitive advantage within
the TPL industry.
Method The report is built on a qualitative research study. Information gathering has been
done from interviews in combination with secondary sources. Information from
secondary sources was gathered from literature as books, brochures and articles in
addition to the Internet.
Objective To identify Key Success Factors for leading Third Party Logistics providers on the
European market. Furthermore, throughout an empirical analysis identify a number
of more visible factors for their positioning, development potential and growth
possibilities within the TPL industry.
Conclusions The increasing demands from the customers will most likely lead towards
knowledge intensive and solution based logistics. When developing, implementing
and managing these solutions co-ordination capabilities are of crucial importance
where opportunities will be evident for TPL providers that stay closely aligned with
customer demands. The TPL market will most likely be divided into various
segments. The logistics systems will be more standardized from one perspective
while another perspective is pointing towards more sophisticated and customer
tailor made logistics systems. Successful TPL providers will most likely use leading
edge technology to adapt to the new and rapidly changing market environment.
TPL providers will take advantage of improved visibility throughout the supply
chain and establish closer and more long-term relationships with customers.