whose company offers a “Supply Chain
Health Check” assessment and analysis
service. And second, the 3PL’s consulting
arm can tap into deep operational knowledge in specialty areas or, as in his company’s case, a broad spectrum of supply chain
functions, from order to delivery.
Traditional consultants aspire to deliver
the same results. But it takes more time for
them to gain access to the organization and
data, and more time to determine whether
their recommendations can be implemented and succeed than it does for 3PLs that
already have established relationships with
shippers, Heeren says.
Even so, many times a traditional consulting firm is a better choice, says Lynch. “It
depends on what the project is. If you have
a transportation project, then you probably
don’t want to go to a warehouse-oriented
[3PL] to get it done. They may have consulting departments and say they can do any
kind of supply chain work, but I don’t think
you’re buying from the experts in the field
when you do that.” When a project crosses
several functional lines within a supply
chain—for example, a project that involves
warehousing, transportation, IT systems,
and perhaps purchasing or production—
shippers would be better off using a traditional consulting firm with a broad range of
experience, he says.
Fresh competition
AMR’s Aimi, who recently wrote a brief on
the subject of 3PL consulting, sees this
trend as a natural expansion of a maturing
industry that serves a clientele with
increasingly complex supply chains. Still,
most logistics companies that offer consulting services remain focused on the area
where they are most comfortable, such as
transportation or warehousing. Only a few
are doing more comprehensive, true supply chain consulting, he observes.
While Aimi expects to see more 3PLs
offering consulting services, he cautions
that success will be elusive unless they also
take on the execution of their proposed
solutions. And they could soon face some
new competition for consulting work: business process outsourcing (BPO) firms. The
BPO firms, especially those in India, are
very large and very aggressive, and they are
already involved with some aspects of sup-
ply chain management, he notes.
They typically pitch their IT, human
resources, and customer support services at the executive level—to CFOs, if
not the CEOs, he says. Logistics service providers are not communicating
at that high a level, which could put
them at a disadvantage, he adds.
Regardless of which type of consultant a company chooses, though,
the end result should be the same: a
measurable improvement in supply
chain performance resulting from a
plan that offers the greatest possible
benefits to the customer, not to the
provider.
