Physical Distribution Management is related to marketing in a manner similar to the way materials management is related to production. Advocates of the physical distribution organization traditionally refer to it as "the other half of marketing."" This view divides marketing into two parts: (1) conventional marketing (market research, product development, sales promotion, advertising, and selling) and (2) physical distribution. To people holding this view, physical distribution consists of the following minimum functions:.
Sales order processing, Traffic and transportation, Production control, Inventory control, Materials handling, & Sales planning.
Physical distribution can also include additional functions such as customer service and technical service.
Many of these materials function are plainly the same functions claimed by materials management. For the most part, however, the functions are concerned with different materials and are performed at different points in time in the materials system (cycle). For example, the inventories controlled by physical distribution management are finished goods inventories. The warehouses controlled by physical distribution are primarily finished goods warehouses, field warehouses, or distribution centres; those controlled by materials management are the raw materials and production stores warehouses. On the other hand, traffic and production control frequently constitute points of contention between physical distribution management advocates and materials management advocates. In the case of both of these functions, each organizational group can lay legitimate claim to them. The optimum location for traffic and production control will vary from one company to another, depending on specific operating and organisational factors within each firm. .
Logistics management is a combination of materials management and physical distribution management. On the basis of the preceding discussions of the latter two concepts, it is clear that a number of similarities exist between them.
