Understanding Performance Measurement and Control in Third Party Logistics

Each individual planning process starts with clear objectives. These objectives specify the goals for the planning process, which is assigning tasks to resources at a certain point in time. Planning systems, whether manual or computerized, should utilize those objectives in their planning. In order to gain insight in the specific planning objectives for the Logistical Service Providers (LSPs) domain, we study the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to this field. Typically, KPIs are used in a postante context: to evaluate the past performance of a company. We reason that KPIs could be utilized differently as well: if one knows what counts afterwards, it would be logical to anticipate this in the planning phase. This paper thus focuses on the performance parameters and objectives that play a role in the logistical planning process. In order to gain insight in the factors that should play a role when designing a new software system for planning and control of LSP operations. In this paper we present an extensive literature survey we performed, and introduce a framework that is capable of capturing the dynamics of competing KPIs, while positioning them in the practical context of an LSP. We conclude with a first validation of the framework and a roadmap for our future work, with the design of a software agentbased planning system for (road-) logistics as an intended final result.