PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION IMPLEMENTATION EFFECTIVENESS: THE CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

A study is reported which applies organizational assessment theory to external audits of the effectiveness of physical distribution programs. Only two areas of distribution service were addressed, product availability and order cycle time. Only 6 effectiveness measures were employed, 3 of relevant product-flow expectations and 3 of relevant information-flow expectations. The data that were analyzed reflect only the perceptions of the portion of the food industry. The three most significant contributions emanating from this study relate to the following: the distinction between customer-service elements and measures of customer satisfaction with distribution performance; the role of information in developing and implementing effective distribution programs; the 2 effectiveness measures, consistency of product flows and accuracy of information flows.