The decision to outsource to a 3PL is driven by the consumer /customer of the business which drives service requirements. At a high level however, there are three main reasons to consider a 3PL.
1) FLEXIBILITY – Real Estate, Space, Labor, Systems, Transportation, Strategy all may need to be changed and a 3PL offers an ability to avoid locking into one solution.
2) TECHNOLOGY – WMS, TMS, EDI, OMS systems can be very complex implementations. My career started as an SAP Consultant and I saw ERP implementations take many years to complete.
3) SPEED – Go to market. If you see a new market, sometimes it makes sense to outsource the infrastructure and attack right away.
The most successful 3PL relationships are strategic in nature and follow a “vested outsourcing” model with tight KPIs. Shippers do well to share their corporate strategy and key initiatives with their partners as well as detailed supply chain goals. This ensures that product flows from sourcing to final mile delivery without issues in a cost effective, customer pleasing manner.
