Innovate or Die: The 4 KPIs of 3PL You Need to Know

In the world of third-party logistics (3PL), innovation is king. Indeed, innovation is one of the top aspects companies look for when considering a move to horizontal collaboration. But in recent years, short contracts and price pressures have prevented inventive changes for many logistics companies. So how do you overcome these challenges to innovate, profitably and creatively?

Let's start with the core reasons companies look outside their organization for the shipping process in the first place. From a shipper's perspective, 3PL offers a level of expertise and a core competence that they don't have. A third party also offers attractive economies of scale, so they can negotiate low rates that a manufacturer might not be able to achieve on their own. Lastly, a 3PL is expected to offer an innovative solution to the status quo.

But what does this mean exactly in terms of logistics? When it comes to supply chain management, it's not about re-inventing the wheel. It's about collaboratively creating better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas from shop floor to the door step of your customers.

Innovation means anything and everything from reducing working capital to reducing transit times, and displaying a higher level of visibility into the process. In order to achieve any of this, there must be a process of collecting data, understanding it, and transforming it into actionable solutions. Indeed, increased access to an ocean of data-and the tools that allow you to analyze and understand it-is one of the strongest and fastest factors driving innovative new ways to approach supply chain management today.

And how do you achieve all of this? The answer, put simply: a data discovery process with business intelligence and analytics. Business intelligence and analytics gives insight into ...