Warehouse Specialists - Out of Source - Out of mind

Out sourcing has become a major sector of the economy covering a wide range of services.  The third party, Logistics Service Provider (LSP) market is one of the largest parts of that having seen rapid growth over the last couple of decades.

However changes are afoot.  After years of growth the grocery sector is now bringing distribution back in house and fewer companies are now outsourcing for the first time.

There are many reasons for this but one is a failure by users to manage their outsource partners effectively. For many, outsourcing has been done for the wrong reasons - in the belief that an awkward aspect of the business can be left to others to get on with leaving the management team to focus on what is believed to be core activities.

Although there will always be exceptions most outsourced logistics contracts tend to be rather static affairs with little attempt at continuous improvement.  In these tighter economic times it is vital that users of outsourced services take steps to ensure that they are getting the best possible quality and efficiency.  This can only be done through critical review and process measurement.

Partly as a result of having outsourced, few users have retained these skills in house and so THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS has developed a packaged performance assessment programme.  This starts with a critical review of the client’s operation, the key output of which is a focused programme of measurement designed to set performance standards and show where performance improvements can be made.  Following this initial study we follow up with a periodic review designed to ensure that the improvements are made and to identify the next set of opportunities.  Eventually this becomes a programme of continuous improvement.

Many of the LSPs have the resources to do this but few offer them to clients and even fewer really apply the objective, critical approach needed to drive out cost.  It is rarely in their interest to do so.  Only the client has the real motivation to do this and with our help can ensure that their outsource partner provides the best service at the lowest cost.