An exploratory study of vendor logistics performance measurement for logistics management in Asia’s apparel industry

Developing countries in South and South East Asia are becoming more and more important in the global textile and clothing trade. This can be seen from the fact that South and South East Asian countries’ textile and clothing exports to the United States of America have increased in recent years. Some Asia countries include India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand and Philippines were in the top ten positions of the US clothing importers in 2005. Scholars looking at Asian countries note that they possess plentiful human resources, rapid development in information, communication, knowledge and talent and rapid economic growth. It is not difficult to understand that Asia is becoming an important battlefield for global businesses. With all the potential advantages Asia provides, apparel sourcing will continue to grow in Asia. Customers now have better choices because the gap between supply and demand has decreased and competition has increased. Customers have begun demanding more features and better service. Because of the need to meet rising demand for consumer products, the productivity of an enterprise is no doubt an important performance measure. Good supply chain performance in manufacturing companies is important for achieving competitive advantage. Logistics plays an important strategic role in the supply chain. Logistics management has developed rapidly in recent decades as an essential business management strategy. It is imperative for businesses to develop performance measurement systems in logistics that provide feedback for timely responses, as well as monitoring and enhancement. This research explores Vendor Logistics Performance and develops a performance measurement tool – the VLPM tool for logistics management to enable Asia’s apparel industry to sustain and enhance organisations’ competitive advantages. A case study research methodology was adopted to address each of the research questions. Participants from three different sectors of Asia’s apparel industry were interviewed. The participants came from a sourcing company, a vendor and a third party logistics service provider. The data obtained were then analysed to show the pattern of the results for each of the four questions and two sub-questions developed in the literature review and also for new findings that were not planned from the literature review. The research findings were compared with the extant literature to identify the contributions that the research makes to understanding how and why VLPM needs to be developed and how it is of benefit to organisations. This research contributes to the body of knowledge of logistics management and continuous improvement through the important contribution of VLPM and provides a proposed theoretical model for vendor logistics performance measurement. The study raises questions requiring further research that is of theoretical and practical interest. The study can be a springboard for advocating to practitioners and management executives that they develop a recognised and standardised industrial VLPM tool, since logistics management has already been recognised as an important aspect of organisations’ efforts to sustain and enhance their competitive advantage in the market place. VLPM is an important topic and requires further research