As a business development manager with Swisslog, Bill is seeing a trend toward companies investing in "their sphere" to improve competitiveness, which is exactly what Swisslog does -- help companies invest in their distribution facilities to improve their supply chain. In Bill's words, "Our company specializes in material handling, automation, and software systems that optimize warehouses, distribution centers, order fulfillment centers and those sorts of facilities."
"We're saying consider the internal alternative to a 3PL"
Expanding on Swisslog's capabilities, Bill Leber said, "We’re asking companies to reconsider the trade-offs, long term, to insourcing vs. 3PLs. In Bill's opinion, once companies who choose to outsource distribution and logistics reach a certain critical mass they are giving up more than they think -- in particular, control and better connection to end users and suppliers. Relying on third party performance, he warns, can put companies at a strategic disadvantage to their competitors.
Vertical integration, as the Wall Street Journal article points out, gives companies more control, and says the reasons for choosing to do more internally vary from one company to the next, "Arcelor, the world's largest steelmaker, wants more control over its raw materials. Pepsi wants more authority over distribution. GM and Boeing are moving by necessity, to assure quantity and quality of vital parts from troubled suppliers. Some are repurchasing businesses they only recently shed."
