Analysis of Warehouse Value-Added Services Using Pareto as a Quality Tool: A Case Study of Third-Party Logistics Service Provider

Luay Jum’a () and Muath Esam Basheer
Additional contact information
Luay Jum’a: Logistic Sciences Department, Business School, German Jordanian University, Amman 11180, Jordan
Muath Esam Basheer: Logistic Sciences Department, Business School, German Jordanian University, Amman 11180, Jordan

Administrative Sciences, 2023, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-23

Abstract: The study aims to analyse warehouse value-added services (VAS) data for a third-party logistics (3PL) service provider, which leads to identifying service improvements and cost-cutting opportunities in performing VAS for clients using Pareto analysis as a quality tool. Using a case study approach, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a leading 3PL firm in Belgium. The approach is conducted by applying major steps of Pareto analysis. Two pharmaceutical products were analysed according to medical general classification, namely narcotic analgesics (NA) and ophthalmic antihistamines and decongestants (OAD). The results showed that the Pareto principle is proven in the NA—ticketing case, and five activities consumed 83.3 percent of the total time of VAS operations. Furthermore, in the OAD—display case, the Pareto principle is proven and six activities were validated as they accounted for 81.26 percent of the total time of primary VAS operations. The study recommended a solution to each of the four causes of delay, including lack of training/best practices, inefficient space utilization, lack of automation, and lack of cohesiveness and planning. Despite the recognized importance of avoiding warehouse operation inefficiencies, the literature lacks studies applied to practice, and few contributions exist regarding analysing 3PL service providers’ warehousing VAS operations data. This study identified all VAS activities for temperature-controlled pharmaceutical products. Moreover, the study proposes a warehouse operations improvement framework for non-automated 3PL warehouses and guides managers through Pareto analysis to cut costs and improve service level.

Keywords: warehouse data management; Pareto analysis; quality tool; value-added services; third-party logistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/13/2/51/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/13/2/51/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:13:y:2023:i:2:p:51-:d:1061330

Access Statistics for this article

Administrative Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Nancy Ma

More articles in Administrative Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().