Physical distribution management: THE TOTAL CONCEPT

Abstract

THE total distribution concept refers essentially to an attitude of mind, a philosophy, a conviction. It is concerned with the interface situations and relationships inside a business between the prime activities of production, marketing and distribution and their balanced coordination in the pursuit of the company's corporate plan based on the optimization of long‐term profits. It is a philosophy which demands acceptance from everyone concerned at top level with the control of a business. It is not simply devised for the comfort and solace of the distribution manager. He must go with it since it demands of him concessions of sovereignty in the same way as a nation state concedes when it joins a consortium or federation. But equally, his colleagues on other sides of the business are required to consider their separate obligations in a new dimension in which the Corporate Plan appears and disappears like the Cheshire Cat.

Citation

PETTIT, D. (1969), "Physical distribution management: THE TOTAL CONCEPT", Management Decision, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 31-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb000892