Strategy. Analytics. Change.

LSPs create value for shippers (manufacturers, wholesalers & distributors, and retailers) as a strategic outsource provider, alleviating various capacity constraints and/or by providing technology, skills, and process capabilities. In ever-changing markets, services need to evolve and demand for new service offerings occurs. For example, during times when carrier capacity is low, dedicated contract carriage becomes more attractive. Warehouse-based LSPs are also tapped for their expertise by retailers expanding or adding e-commerce fulfillment into their network. In these uncertain and dynamic environments, LSPs have to be agile and adaptable to shipper needs through system and process optimization.  

LSPs create value for shippers (manufacturers, wholesalers & distributors, and retailers) as a strategic outsource provider, alleviating various capacity constraints and/or by providing technology, skills, and process capabilities. In ever-changing markets, services need to evolve and demand for new service offerings occurs. For example, during times when carrier capacity is low, dedicated contract carriage becomes more attractive. Warehouse-based LSPs are also tapped for their expertise by retailers expanding or adding e-commerce fulfillment into their network. In these uncertain and dynamic environments, LSPs have to be agile and adaptable to shipper needs through system and process optimization.  

Private equity firms need to quickly breakdown and understand complex business models. In the supply chain space, understanding a target companies’ service offering(s) and determining its uniqueness in the market is usually the greatest challenge. In some instances, LSP’s may have highly specialized intellectual property (IP) to support a niche service they provide, and the more niche it is, the less likely it is to be commercially viable. This is a critical distinction that needs to be made in order to understand and capitalize on the go-to-market strategies of LSPs and to help determine value. Other challenges include determining human capital strengths (and weaknesses) in sales, IT/systems, and operations, as well as operational IT diligence.  

Regulated industries are creating supply chain challenges for all stakeholders; with varying regulations and dynamic supplier/importer communities, typical business cases around route optimization, order capture, and change management are more complex and difficult to quickly unlock value. Despite the uniqueness in each regulated industry, lessons-learned across these industries (think alcohol, cannabis, and medical devices) can be applied to more commonly used strategy, analytical, and implementation methodologies to enable best–in–class outcomes.  

Manufacturers’ supply chains are unique – their nodes are fixed, their supply dependencies are critical to production, lead-times can be long, they are resource-intensive, there’s limited storage space… the list goes on; and that does not even consider the differences between Continuous vs. Discrete. In addition to the physical flow / supply chain uniqueness derived from the transformational role of manufacturers, their organizational power dynamics are different – direct and indirect sourcing centralized through procurement, operationally decentralized through plant managers, traditional IT favoring on-premise deployments, etc. – creating strategy development and implementation challenges for the business. 

Wholesalers & distributors do more than just create liquidity and/or position inventory closer to customers; they are critical in understanding and communicating demand to upstream trading partners. Wholesalers and Distributors ultimately benefit their partners by enabling access to various downstream distribution channels, adding value through light-manufacturing or other transformational processes, and servicing customers through ‘after-market’ services. Managing these capabilities through multiple distribution channels requires adaptability to balance rising expectations from retailers while maintaining service levels with suppliers/vendors.  

Retail and e-commerce companies’ diverse models require innovative solutions from order capture to returns operations, via logistics capabilities and customer relationship management. Because consumers are fickle and have high (and sometimes unrealistic) expectations in this realm, responsiveness is critical. Analyzing consumer satisfaction, adjusting to their needs/wants, and implementing solutions to execute effectively is how compete in such a competitive space with high-growth potential or fast-decline possibilities.