[Companies are] viewing distribution as part of the entire order fulfillment cycle instead of merely a function, hence undertaking speed and cost reduction efforts in an integrated customer-oriented fashion instead of striving for functional simplification and localized cost-cutting.  Companies such as Xerox, Apple Computer, Intel, and Georgia Pacific, for example, explicitly recognize this through their focus on the integrated supply chain...Over the past few years, an increasingly large number have established vice president/executive level logistics positions.  As a result, the integrated supply chain has been explicitly elevated as a major enterprise process.

Christopher Gopal and Harold Cypress
Integrated Distribution Management: Competing on Customer Service, Time, and Cost

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