Impact of communication on the collaboration between 3PL service providers and their clients. Case of Lithuania

Abstract

Production enterprises constantly are trying to add more value to their products and secure their competitive advantage. One of the possible ways in achieving this goal is to get rid of the uncommon activities to intermediaries, which take control over the process of distribution of goods. However, due to intense change on the market, intermediaries responsible for provision of third-party logistics (3PL) services, sometimes fall short to adapt to shifted manufacturer's needs. Because of the insufficient exchange of information, 3PL service providers start to render inadequate services and are not able to assure efficiency of manufacturer's logistics system. This article discusses importance of exchange of information between production enterprises and their logistics intermediaries based on the results of study on the situation of communication problems between 3PL service providers and their clients in Lithuania.