Information sharing model of supply chain based on third party logistics providers

Supply chain fulfills its customer´s demand by a network of companies, mainly consisting of suppliers, manufacturers and third party logistics providers (thereafter 3PLs). Firstly, the related literatures are reviewed. And based on Venn diagram, the information sharing mechanism is analyzed to indicate the relationship between the different shared information. Moreover, three information-sharing models are proposed and analyzed, which are the point-to-point model, the interface model, and the integrated manage model. Integrated with the aforementioned analysis, the view is provided to select the matching information sharing model under different conditions. The paper ends with a discussion of directions for future research.