Procurement of a Third party logistics company : A possible benchmarking method

Sammanfattning: In an effort to reduce waste in construction projects, hence promoting value creation, the focus on the construction logistics becomes increasingly important, especially with increasing complexity of the project. This is in order to coordinate and effectively plan the routines and deliveries that occur regularly at the construction site. In an effort of becoming more efficient regarding this matter and to reduce the amount of waste, procurement of a third party logistics company that conducts all necessary logistical activities has become more and more recognized. The purpose of the master thesis is to analyze the procurement of a third party logistics company (3PL) and how it has been handled during a project life cycle and how to optimize this type of solution as a partnership and as a benchmarking method. Finally client perception and satisfaction of the executed work is analyzed, all of which are summarized in the research questions stated below: • How has the collaboration with the procured third party logistics company (3PL) been conducted during the project life cycle? • How is it possible to develop and optimize the collaboration with a 3PL in order to achieve better results in the future as a partnership and a benchmarking method? • What is the client perception and satisfaction of the executed work by the third party logistics company? The theoretical chapter will serve as a foundation of the thesis where the relevant concepts are described complemented with a comparative case study of two projects with relevance to the stated questions. The case study consists of documents and interviews with key participants. The result will show a holistic profitability with additional suggestions to further develop this type of collaboration as a benchmarking method, what is the next reasonable step of further optimization regarding 3PL procurement and what generalizations can be made.