THE LOGISTICS IMPLICATIONS OF CHANGES IN RETAILING

Limited use of containers; government intervention in the control of deliveries; the creation of a National Pallet Pool; the development of automated warehousing; these are some of the developments in physical distribution which are seen likely to happen, in varying degrees, by a number of manufacturers and retailers involved in a research project sponsored jointly by Cranfield and the IGD. Primary purpose of the project was to establish ‘cause and effect’ relationships between changes in retailing and developments in physical distribution, and the method adopted for obtaining the forecast was the Delphi technique — the first time this has been applied to any aspect of corporate planning. This article discusses the background to the project, examines the Delphic method in some detail, and pinpoints the project's principal findings.