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Differences Between the Collaboration Setups
In many ways, the collaboration setups with the 3PL and 4PL are similar; after all they do cover the same responsibility area of planning the outbound goods flow and managing the transportation of goods. However three key differences can be identified between the operational structure of the two collaboration setups which in turn are the cause for differences within the planning process and the collaboration structure overall:
The 3PL used their own trucks while the 4PL outsourced transportation This is the most crucial difference between 3PL companies and 4PL companies in general, how they approach assets and whether or not they use their own trucks and physical assets in order to perform their services. In the case of the 3PL company (and 3PL companies in general) they are asset based with their own fleet of trucks and drivers where as the 4PL, much like the definition of 4PL companies, does not have their own physical assets but rather relies on outsourcing the physical handling of goods.
The 3PL used stand-alone trailers while the 4PL used driver-bound transportation In the two collaboration setups presented in this case, one key difference is that within the 3PL setup, stand-alone trailers were used where as within the 4PL setup, driver-bound transportation were mainly used. This is of importance to both planning as well as operational departments at the focal firm, which are the main areas where the collaboration setups took place.
The 3PL were located on-site while the 4PL were located off-site
The final key difference is that the 3PL had their office at the focal firm’s site where as the 4PL were located off-site much further away. Since this thesis examines the subject of conflicts and problems which can be affected by the physical distance to each other, this issue is of high importance and a major difference between the two collaboration setups.
Conflicts and Problems Revealed
This chapter will present the nature of the problems and conflicts that has been identified through the performed interviews. With conflicts and the area in general being a rather sensitive field of study and due to ethical concerns, actual problems and conflicts will not be presented but rather an overview of how each conflict area as presented by Mamad and Chahdi (2013) is reflected in the cooperation between the focal firm and its two different collaboration partners.
Trust
Regarding the trust issue the main opinion reflected by the interviews was that the focal firm has more trust in the 4PL company than they had in the 3PL company. There are a few factors that highly affected this issue, one which was that the 4PL company used drivers that either knew English or a Scandinavian language. This made it a lot easier for the focal firm to communicate with the drivers which made it easier to trust that they do what they are supposed to do. The 3PL mostly used drivers that did not speak any Scandinavian language as well as having lacking English skills, which made it impossible to communicate. Another factor that affected the trust issue was that the drivers used by the 4PL returned to drive the same routes several times, which made the personnel at the focal firm got to know the drivers as well as the drivers getting to know the routes. This created a common ground and the personnel of the focal firm built up a trust for the drivers since they knew they had driven the same route before. With the 3PL they had a lot of different drivers and there were very rarely any driver returning to drive the same route twice.
few factors regarding trust were different depending on which department of the focal firm that was interviewed. At operational level respondents claimed that while the 3PL had a lot of different persons that you got in contact with if there were any issues, they all had experience and knew what they were doing. While if they, at operational level contacted the 4PL they could end up speaking to someone which were more inexperienced and had less knowledge about what to do in different situations. However at a higher level within the focal firm the trust regarding this factor was greater for the 4PL due to the fact that they often talked and cooperated with the same person as opposed to when contacting the 3PL at a higher level where more times there were different people involved than with the 4PL.
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem Description
1.3 Purpose and Research Questions .
2 Theoretical Framework .
2.1 Introduction .
2.2 Supply chain management
2.3 Outsourcing .
2.4 Definition of Actors
2.5 Collaboration
2.6 Supply Chain Conflicts
2.7 Theory summary
3 Methodology
3.1 Research Methodology
3.2 Research Philosophy
3.3 Research Approach
3.4 Strategy .
3.5 Methodological Choice
3.6 Time horizon .
3.7 Data collection
3.8 Data Analysing Techniques
3.9 Research Quality
3.9.1 Research Ethics
4 Result
4.1 Collaboration Structure.
4.2 Conflicts and Problems Revealed
5 Analysis
6 Conclusion and Discussion
7 References
Collaboration within Supply Chains
