distribution by value also ABC classification

Syn: ABC classification.

A warehouse with finished goods and/or service items. A company, for example, might have a manufacturing facility in Philadelphia and distribution centers in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Distribution center is synonymous with the term branch warehouse, although the former has become more commonly used recently. When a warehouse serves a group of satellite warehouses, it is usually called a regional distribution center. Syn: branch warehouse, field warehouse.

The distribution route, from raw materials through consumption, along which products travel. See: channels of distribution, marketing channel.

Those items of cost related to the activities associated with the movement and storage of finished products. Distribution costs can include inventory costs, transportation costs, and order processing costs.

A graphic display of numerous data points showing the mean and frequency of occurrences of observations on a chart. See: normal distribution curve.

Inventory, usually spare parts and finished goods, located in the distribution system (e.g., in warehouses and in-transit between warehouses and the consumer).

The planned channels of inventory disbursement from one or more sources to field warehouses and ultimately to the customer. There may be one or more levels in the disbursement system. Syn: bill of distribution.

Tabulation of the forecast errors according to the frequency of occurrence of each error value. The errors in forecasting are, in many cases, normally distributed even when the observed data do not come from a normal distribution.