Integration of sustainable criteria into a logistics service provider selection process

Master's Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Engineering - Industrial Engineering and Management, Technical University of Berlin (Logistik), language: English, abstract: The need for the integration of sustainability into Supply Chain Management has constantly increased over the last years. The simultaneous rise of the relevance of outsourcing of logistics activities emphasizes the need to put strong attention to sustainable aspects in the relationship between shippers and their logistics service providers (LSP). This thesis strives to answer the question how sustainability can be integrated into the LSP procurement process.

Thereto, a broad literature review is compiled by applying all relevant references into a comprehensive framework. One of the main revealed challenges of sustainable LSP procurement is the lack of overview on sustainable selection criteria.

In order to overcome this gap, a multi-dimensional model will be presented to improve comparability and organization of criteria by assigning them to a sustainable dimension, field of activity, field of action and time/ planning horizon. The following research on existing sustainable selection criteria results in a long list with 123 criteria. The statistical analyses of this list provide insights into current research directions on sustainability and both approve assumptions and unveil mismatches from the existing body of literature.

The development of an expert guidance based on the catalogue of sustainable selection criteria offers practical applications to foster the integration of sustainability into LSP-shipper relationships. It provides assistance for LSP procurement decisions of transportation and warehousing as well as for evaluation of sustainable certification standards.

Although the presented criteria catalogue offers an opportunity to compare different selection criteria by counting the number of contributions mentioning a specific criterion, quantitative measurability of sustainable selection criteria remains one of the most important open challenges.