Sales & Marketing
Customer Orders[1]
Distribution Warehous Requirements planning & Control[2]
Available to promise [3]
Demand seasonality and Variability [4]
Distribution Inventory [5]
Consigned Stock[6]
Purchase for Resale[7]
Managing Costs of Having Distribution Centers[8]
[1]
Customer orders are important to all companies.  Without them we can close our doord.  We create our plans and organize material and manufactruing on the assumption that customers's orders will arrive to consume the product we have produced.
 



[2]
Enas refaat:
Many organzations have a main plant whish manufacturs the product but then sell it throughout the country, through a distribution network.  The concept is that there is a main warehouse at the factory or at a central location. Shipments are then made to distribution centers situated in different parts of the country, normally owned by the company.  
[3]
ghannam:
This the free finished goods that a sales man can promise a customer.
[4]
Enas refaat:
Many industries have the problem of seasonality.  This is when your product does not have a nice steady demand, but has certain month of the year when sales are low and other month when sales are high. Each year the same pattern repeats itself.  Typical examples are the sales of candy and biscuits.  Those manufacturers have very high sales in October & November as the retailers are buying in for the Christmans period.  In the candy business , that peak period of about two months can equal up to 40% or more of the annual sales for specific products. 
[5]
Enas refaat:
APICS defines distribution as the activities  associated with the movement of material, usually finished products or service parts, from the manufacturer to the customer.  These activities encompass the functions of trasportation, warehousing, inventory control, material handling, order administration site/location analysis, industrial packaging, data prcessing, and the comunication network necessary for effective management.
[6]
Enas refaat:
Consigned or consignment stock is defined as inventories, generally of finished goods, that are in the possession of customers, dealers, agents, etc., but remain the property of the manufacturer until after they are used or sold.
This approach requires the supplier to place goods at the customer premises for him to use as he requires.Typically at each month and they jointly verify what is left and the customer is charged for the items that have been used.  Those items are then replaced.  The items remain the property of the supplier until they have been paid for.
[7]
Enas refaat:
This is the concept of buying an item to sell.  Typically this is what a distributor or a retailer does.  He buys in bulk from the manufacturer or distributor and then sells in units to the customers.  The customer can be a retailer or the end user.  Anothe application of "purchase -for-resale" is when a manufacturing company manufactures a range of products but then buys other items that need to be sold with the manufacured items.
These complimentary items are typically totally different from manufacturing point of view to the main products made.
[8]
Enas refaat:
Distribution centers increase the company overheads.  Each center need a manager, receiption area, and a building, etc.  This costs more as the utilization of dublicated resources is not as effective as one central operation