Cinderella is now in the boardroom
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It was now being recognised that distribution had a much more significant role to play in the corporate plan. The distribution manager was now concerned less with the absolute efficiency of his operations and more with ensuring that his company distribution policy was in harmony with its overall business policy.
The main roles of the distribution manager were now, therefore, advising on the implications of distribution on production, commercial and Other policy decisions; interpreting those decisions in distribution terms; and preparing the necessary plans; ensuring that the distribution organisation was capable of implementing the plans; and constantly monitoring the distribution performance.
Paradoxically, the distribution manager also had a part to play in reducing distribution where this was possible, such as advising on the siting of factories in relation to the centres of sales and consumption.
This was particularly important in the shadow of the energy crisis.
Latterly, the distribution manager had assumed a new role forced on him by the increasing public concern about the environment. He therefore had to be aware of his responsibilities to the community as well as to his management. There was little conflict in this because good community relations were acknowledged as good for business, said Mr Pieroni. Mr Jack Parker expressed some doubts about the function of a distribution manager to reduce distribution. After ail, he said, was not distribution what he had to deal with?
Scale
Mr Pieroni pointed out that it depended largely on the scale of the business concerned. Obviously, for the larger business with a multiplicity of factories, site location was even more important.
One questioner asked about the designation of lorry routes and its relationship to the distribution manager who was already aware of the effect of vehicles on the environment.
If the road transport industry did not have an awareness of the effect of vehicle routeing on the environment and do the job itself it would have to pay the price in terms of imposed restrictions, said Mr Pieroni. In Germany, the transport of certain chemicals involved the acquisition of a permit to carry by road, and if the load passed through a number of regions, then a permit was necessary for each region. Added to this, notice to the police was necessary which could involve travelling only during certain restricted hours. These were the kinds of restrictions which might have to be faced if the road transport industry did not put its own house in order.