Distribution Planning In Japan

Highlighting the complexity of the Japanese distribution system from a variety of perspectives (Japan, the United States and Europe), this text emphasises the business, policy, and research aspects.

When work began on the first volume ofthis text in 1992, the science of dis tribution management was still very much a backwater of general manage ment and academic thought. While most of the body of knowledge associated with calculating EOQs, fair-shares inventory deployment, productivity curves, and other operations management techniques had long been solidly established, new thinking about distribution management had taken a definite back-seat to the then dominant interest in Lean thinking, quality management, and business process reengineering and their impact on manufacturing and service organizations. For the most part, discussion relating to the distri bution function centered on a fairly recent concept called Logistics Manage ment. But, despite talk of how logistics could be used to integrate internal and external business functions and even be considered a source of com petitive advantage on its own, most of the focus remained on how companies could utilize operations management techniques to optimize the traditional day-to-day shipping and receiving functions in order to achieve cost contain ment and customer fulfillment objectives. In the end, distribution manage ment was, for the most part, still considered a dreary science, concerned with oftransportation rates and cost trade-offs. expediting and the tedious calculus Today, the science of distribution has become perhaps one of the most im portant and exciting disciplines in the management of business.

This revised edition takes account of recent changes that have resulted from companies realizing that distribution requires a high level of efficiency. It provides a variety of information on all current and future trends in logistics and distribution. The most significant aspects of the subject are covered, including warehouse location and operation, customer service, global and European expansion, 24-hour distribution, changing buyer-supplier relationships and performance evaluation.

A roadmap of how the Japanese distribution system works and how to successfully market products in Japan.