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Pharmaceutical Supply Chains - Medicines Shortages pp 125–146Cite as

Review of Pharmaceutical Sea Freight and Malaysian Third-Party Logistics Service Providers—A Supply Chain Perspective

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Logistics ((LNLO))

Abstract

Logistics is the backbone of trade because it integrates the supply chain for trade facilitation of all businesses including pharmaceuticals. The objective of this article is to review pharmaceutical ocean logistics trends and issues, and four Malaysian third-party logistics (3PL) research publications consisting of service quality, cost and service differentiation, integration and information system of freight-forwarding and container freight. The publication review is to ascertain if third-party logistics are potentially capable of supporting ocean pharma non-cold chain freight to pre-empt medicine shortages and identify challenges of the logistics supply chain. The research showed logistics service quality impacts customers’ satisfaction, low costs and service differentiation influence firms’ sustainable financial competitiveness, integration of depot and hauliers enhances national logistics performance, information system affects supply chain integration (SCI), and SCI affects operational and environmental performance. These studies involved third-party logistics service providers (LSP) along the supply chain which were freight-forwarding companies and their customers, and the container depots and hauliers. The review provides research evidence of logistics service quality potentially capable of meeting the requirements of conventional ocean-going non-cold chain pharma container freight as featured in professional logistics publications. Medicine shortages attributed to freight forwarders are unlikely noting their agility and robustness in the face of economic uncertainties. They are agile enough to manage factors internal and external to the firms. The research also provides suggestions to the SCI challenges confronting the conventional ocean container freight supply chain at the depot-haulier interface to forestall delays. This article reviews relate to research investigations of 3PL in Malaysia, a country sitting in the heart of Southeast Asia.

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Abbreviations

AOA:

Availability of Alternatives

AVE:

Average Variance Extracted

CFAI:

Cross Functional Application Integration

CR:

Composite Reliability

DC:

Data Consistency

EP:

Environmental Performance

FTQ:

Functional logistics service quality

GDP:

Gross Domestic Product

HTMT:

Heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations

IF:

Integration factors between Depots and Hauliers

II:

Information Integration

IS:

Information System

LPI:

Logistics Performance Index

LSP:

Logistics Service Providers

LSQ:

Logistics Service Quality

MBV:

Market-based View

OE:

Operational Efficiency

OI:

Operational Integration

OP:

Organizational Performance

PDSQ:

Physical Distribution Service Quality

RBV:

Resource-based View

SAT:

Satisfaction

SC:

Supply Complexity

SCI:

Supply Chain Integration

SD:

Supply Dynamism

SE:

Supply Environment

SI:

Supply Importance

SQ:

Service Quality of Depot

TNQ:

Technical logistics service quality

3PL:

Third Party Logistics

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Acknowledgements

The first author would like to thank COST Action CA15105, European Medicines Shortages Research Network, addressing supply problems to patients (Medicines Shortages). Further thanks are extended to the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, British Academy and Newton-Ungku Omar Fund (grant number 304/PMGT/650912/B130 and 304/PMGT/6316295) to complete this research project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, USM, Penang, Malaysia

    Wai-Peng Wong

  2. INTI Penang International College, 11900, Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia

    Keng-Lin Soh

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  1. Wai-Peng Wong
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Correspondence to Wai-Peng Wong .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering and Management, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana Paula Barbosa-Povoa

  2. aF&E Ernährung und Diätetik, Berner Fachhochschule, Bern, Switzerland

    Helena Jenzer

  3. ESTG/IPP, Portalegre, Portugal

    João Luís de Miranda

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Wong, WP., Soh, KL. (2019). Review of Pharmaceutical Sea Freight and Malaysian Third-Party Logistics Service Providers—A Supply Chain Perspective. In: Barbosa-Povoa, A., Jenzer, H., de Miranda, J. (eds) Pharmaceutical Supply Chains - Medicines Shortages. Lecture Notes in Logistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15398-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15398-4_8

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