Introduction

Citation

Sahay, B.S. (2006), "Introduction", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 36 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpdlm.2006.00536iaa.001

Introduction

About the Guest Editor Professor B.S. Sahay is Director of Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Ghaziabad, India. Prior to joining IMT, he was Dean (Research) and Professor of Operations Management at Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, India. He was also an Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology, Australia and Founding Chairman of Centre for Supply Chain Management. Professor Sahay did his PhD in Industrial Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India. His teaching, research and consulting interests include logistics and supply chain management, production and operations management, project management, productivity management and business modelling. He has been Guest Editor of International Journal of Technology Management and International Journal of Integrated Supply Management. He is on the Editorial Board of seven international journals and many national journals. He has carried out 17 sponsored research projects and 35 consulting assignments. In token of excellence of his research work he has received many awards including Award of Excellence in Research 2004.

The changing business environment has pushed organizations to concentrate on their core activities and offload a host of logistics functions to experts in the field. Globally, the range of effective logistics outsourcing includes, apart from transportation, warehousing and custom clearance a whole range of other activities such as freight bill payments, auditing, contract manufacturing and assembly operations, packaging and labeling, freight consolidation to name a few. Today, the scope and nature of logistics outsourcing is greatly expanded from select activities to the steering and controlling of all logistics procedures by service providers.

The double special issue on “3PL, 4PL and reverse logistics” focuses upon the evolving practice, academic theory and concepts related to the use of the external organizations for outsourcing logistics functions that have traditionally been performed in-house. The first part of the special issue was brought out in Vol. 36, issue 7 featuring following papers on a range of issues:

• •

  dynamics of relationship governance in TPL arrangements – a dyadic perspective;

• •

  reverse logistics in publishing industry: China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan;

• •

  managing product returns for reverse logistics; and

• •

  a conceptual model for quality of service in a conceptual model for quality of service in supply chain.

The second part of the special issue presents papers primarily on 3PL except the last paper which focuses on the role of 4PL as the reverse logistics. These papers are:

• •

  3PL practices: an Indian perspective;

• •

  a comparative study of the use of third party logistics by Singaporean and Malaysian firms;

• •

  a multi-objective 3PL allocation problem for fish distribution; and

• •

  the role of 4PL as the reverse logistics integrator: optimal pricing and return policies.

Third party logistics services have been examined in a number of countries like North America, Europe, Bulgaria, South Africa, Australia, Korea, Asia Pacific, Singapore, Indochina, etc. however, in the second part of the special issue, two papers are presented. The first paper presents an Indian perspective on 3PL whereas the second paper gives a comparative account of usage of 3PL by Singaporean and Malaysian firms. The third paper uses a multi-objective programming model to determine the number and allocation of 3PL to fish markets whereas the fourth and last paper presents a profit-maximization model to jointly obtain optimal policies for the seller and the 4PL in terms of market reaction parameters.

The objective of this double special issue has been to present a framework for 3PL, 4PL and reverse logistics to manage supply chain effectively and efficiently. The special issue has been able to bring together original contributions that provide theoretical insights, empirical observations and case studies into the rapidly growing complex and uncertain business environment. It is heartening to know that first part of the special issue generated debate and interest not only amongst researchers but among practitioners also. It is anticipated that part II of the double special issue will also generate the same interest amongst researchers and practitioners in creating awareness of the importance of 3PL, 4PL and reverse logistics in managing supply chain profitability in this rapidly growing digital economy.

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the editorial board members for providing full support in bringing out this inaugural issue. My most sincere thanks go to the paper contributors who shared their knowledge and research outcomes in this inaugural issue. I am thankful to all the reviewers who spared their valuable time in reviewing the papers and to the staff of IJPDLM for their high-quality professional assistance during the pre-publication process.

B.S. SahayGuest Editor