'Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.\r'

' accord to a case study cited by Staudt and Stranz (2009), marine dust Cranberries, Inc is an agricultural concerted owned by to a greater extent than 750 cranberry growers in the United States and Canada. The company produces scum bagned and bottled succus, juice rackets and food products at distri only ifion centers in Bordentown, New Jersey; Kenosha, Wisconsin; Sulphur Springs, Texas; and Henderson, Nevada. majestic is usually a challenging month for marine Spray Cranberries, Inc., when the Lakeville, Massachusetts-based firm has to pith up volume to meet the boot in demand for upcoming pass season.Ocean Spray was managing its conveyance operations internally, but the company decided that focusing on its bosom competency would allow them to economise fadeer venture in the shelf-st sufficient juice drink category. The company believes centralizing its transportation operations and bringing all into uniformity man galloping into brisk markets will be secure for t heir company. Although Ocean Spray’s transportation capabilities to be able to support the expanding upon of their logistic meshing can be challenging, investing in a third-party logistics supplier will allow the focus of core competency and revamping of transportation logistics.Benefits of 3PLThe event of an increase trend toward outsourcing of logistic activities, shippers befool been approach with the inevitability of selecting an appropriate third-party logistics provider (Soh, 2009). The cultivate of finding the best suitable 3PL provider that fits user and company requirements can be very(prenominal) challenging. Likewise, Ocean Spray’s expansion of logistics network allows the 3PL to manage distribution, packing, w behousing and assembling. Through their combined resources and knowledge, they can patron to maximize profitability and reliability. One of the advantages of having a 3PL provider is having a large add up of resource network (Langley, 2012) . According to an obligate, 3PLs make up a large network operational that has many advantages over tot chain that argon in-house.By using the resource network of a 3PL, the steps of a supply chain are able to be executed in a address effective and efficient manner. Also, the ability of a 3PL to leverage consanguinitys and volume discounts can result in the fastest helping possible. It allows a company like Ocean Spray to benefit from many resources that are non available to them. Similarly, it lets them build solid relationships and networks that could lead to prospective services and resources in the future. A survey states, 3PLs are primarily face-off shippers’ expectations and an average of 86% of shipper respondents view their 3PL relationships very successful (Langley, 2012).The second advantage of having 3PL providers is the scalability and tractability. galore(postnominal) companies are obviously looking to expand their organization and increase their t ax revenue, so having the flexibility from their 3PL providers allows them to be stress free. 3PL providers has the ability to descale transportation and space according to the inevitably of the company’s inventory. They are able to enhance the growth of the company into new locations that companies never had access to. This can decidedly benefit Ocean Spray’s company as its main close is to expand their logistic network to opposite locations. An article states, sixteen companies reported revenue data and collectively, these companies generated in excess of $23 billion in North American revenues during the year 2009 due to the fact of having 3PL providers (Lieb, 2010). Furthermore, 3 CEOs said their companies had been very gainful and somewhat classified their companies as marginally profitable (Lieb, 2010).The third advantage of having 3PL providers is the ability for unremitting optimization. 3PL providers have the resources to make improvements and adjustme nts to each plug in in the supply chain. They make incontestable that all company and user require are met by using the most cost effective, efficient and fastest methods available. An article states, 3PLs allow shippers to conserve costs and resources, age to a fault helping to provide higher(prenominal) service levels (Patridge, 2008). Similarly, Verizon company uses 3PL provider, New straining to develop an automated warehouse fulfilment solution that provides same-day processing of its direcct-to consumer orders (Patridge, 2008).The 3PL operates of Verizon’s third distribution centers, offering real-time profile to orders and inventory by tracking all(prenominal) serialized unit. Moreover, New Breed ships 20,500 consumer orders daily for Verizon with 99.9 share accuracy while 100 percentage of orders that arrive before 5 p.m are shipped the same day (Patridge, 2008). A customer even states, a call do to Verizon on Monday afternoon regarding a replacing of battery was quickly sent by tuesday morning (Patridge, 2008). This clearly indicates the fast and potential of 3PLs into a company’s operations.Challenges of 3PLAlthough, 3PL providers are beneficial for many companies, they can also cause various challenges to customers. Quality is whiz of the main things that causes the downfall of customer comfort (Hudaziak, 2012). In the 3PL market, customers’ expectations are high, from operation efficiencies to more strategic development (Hudaziak, 2012). Hence, the need to rid of any extra internal muff and inefficiencies of 3PL processes needs to be established so that the level of customer satisfaction and general performance can increase (Hudaziak, 2012). Also, the permute of inventory policy causes the loss of guest business or ownership (Hudaziak, 2012). Thus, 3PLs have no room for errors as it can cause a delay in shipment. RecommendationIn the case of Ocean Spray Cranberries, establishing a transportation based 3PL provider would be the best way to go. In fact, Ocean Spray did give Exel providers the opportunity to ship their products and also awarded them with exceptional service and on-time deliveries. Ocean Spray, appreciated the dedication and commitment service that Excel provides every day. Thus, the only tribute would be to keep the strong relationship between the company and their carriers as it’s important to understand one some other when it comes business and customer requirements.\r\n'