ANALYSIS OF USE OF COMMUNICATION STANDARDS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DISTRIBUTION PROCESSES IN FOURTH PARTY LOGISTICS (4PL)

Abstract

The globalisation of the trade and services market has made it necessary to focus on the key processes performed by individual enterprises in the supply chain. For this reason, logistics operators have started to play an important role in the service market. Operators, using their resources, experience and skills, guarantee to their business partners the highest level of realization of logistic processes. One of the key elements for improving logistics processes efficiency through the use of Fourth Party Logistics is the information flow integration. In this article, the authors focused on presenting an analysis of the integration needs identification of business partners with the 4PL operator. The presented methodology includes both literature analysis, case studies and business practice research, based on research projects carried out in GS1 Poland, Institute of Logistics and Warehousing and the Poznań School of Logistics.

The conducted research concerns the specific information flow in fourth party logistics (4PL), which requires information integration of the entire supply chain. The choice on this issue is related to the topicality of the problem, both in terms of literature research and business practice. Taking into account the specificity of fourth party logistics, the study included not only operators, but also their business partners in the supply chain.

Key words: fourth party logistics, 4PL, integrated supply chain, information flow in the supply chain