AN INVESTIGATION OF MANAGEMENT SENSITIVITY TO LOCATION FACTORS IN A WAREHOUSE NETWORK MONITORING PROCESS: A FOCUS ON FOOD AND CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES IN THE METROPOLITAN NEW YORK AREA.

摘要

The attention given to identifying basic factors that influence distribution location, and the relative importance attached to those factors have occupied many theoreticians involved in developing location theory. Historical emphasis on least cost or demand are not quite as pronounced in effect as the changing pattern of both internal and external factors. In fact, increasing attention is focused on environmental influences to analyze physical distribution strategies. So the obvious question is why not use those factors to monitor--plan and control--those strategies?;A pretest determined that there were fourteen location factors which were generally used for monitoring corporate networks. A set of hypotheses was developed to test statistical significance of management sensitivity to the fourteen factors in food and chemical industry. The result of this study supported the general theory of location. It was found that customer service, transportation cost, location demand and competitor locations essentially featured in the monitoring process.;Chemical industry virtually predominated in rating the four factors higher than food industry. Average number of factors monitored by the combined group of companies was 5.9. There was a positive correlation between the number of factors monitored and the size of the company.;It was also found that higher the number of factors monitored by a company, the higher was the likelihood of that company's periodically examining the pattern of its network. As a result, it was likely to benefit from such evaluations culminating in a distribution cost lower than the industry average.;This study was undertaken to explore the complex phenomenon of specific factors used by different companies in food and chemical industry to monitor their warehouse network. Fifty-two managers and analysts were personally interviewed in the metro New York area.;The main conclusion of this study was that most companies with a distribution network use a monitoring and control system to examine their performance in terms of distribution cost as a per cent of sales. Companies that follow-up on their monitoring process and periodically evaluate their network benefit more than those who do not evaluate their network.;Finally, limitations to the study and a number of recommendations for future research were discussed.