Business
organization must deal with distribution to achieve a set goal. Distribution is
not completed until the goods gets to the final consumers.

Physical
distribution comprises the tasks that is involved in planning and implementing
the physical flow of materials and good from the manufacturing point to the
distributors or the consumer for their own consumption purpose or the aim of
making profit.

Physical
distribution on profitability depends the effective strategy to maintain and
generate more input. The term profitability implies the ability to continuously
generate profits over the sustained period of time. Harper (1984), and Sink and
Tuttle (1989) suggest the likely impacts on profitability of an organization

Distribution
of materials is one of the functions of material management in procurement and
stores. The over all objectives of distribution is to provide a service to the
procurement, marketing, stores and the production function by holding and
delivering of goods and services (products) efficiently and economically.

Further
more, it can also be related to warehousing, delivering and planning the
distribution system. Warehousing is principally a service or production, being
designed to hold products for manufacturer to transform stock from production
units to marketing (Sales) units and to assemble loads for delivering to
consumers/customers.

Distribution
also makes the best used of the resources that are available and to keep
investment of a reasonable levels of products.

Planning
the distribution system, it must be designed to coordinate warehousing with
delivering to advice on the location of the factories, warehouses and depots to
route delivering vehicles to schedule deliveries and to control operations in
accordance with requirements.

The
supply site, must be designed and decided, (to suit the type of business)
routes are needed to develop for supplying of good to the customers.

The
different types of transportations or routes are rail, road, sea, air and
pipeline. These routes must be considered so as to select the one that provides
the best services.

Purchasing
by Kenneth Lysons 4th editions logistics management which is the
same as distribution the author defined it as “the process of strategically
managing the acquisition, movement and storage of materials, parts and finished
inventory (and the related information flows) through the organization and its
marketing channels in such a way that, the current and future profit ability is
maximized, through the cost effective fulfillment of orders (Gattona).

Supply
chain management (purchasing by Mallam Hassan Mohammed) defines distribution as
a “concept that involves the integration of all the value creating elements in
the supply, manufacturing and distribution processes of an organization, from
the raw materials extraction, through the transformation process to end users
consumptions” (pp.16).

Distribution
is also a system which is to provide a service to customers who pay to receive
goods as ordered.

Distribution
channel is the path a product takes as it moves from the producer to the user.
The objectives generally, is to select the most effective, efficient and profitable
pathway.

The
term physical distribution is part of the working vocabulary of every business
many finds it difficult to defines its meaning because a wide range or variety
of interpretation are available in the literature of the subject.

1.2          
Statement
of the Problem