Exploring the Factors Influencing Physical Distribution in Cold Chain Logistics in Shah Alam, Malaysia

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-709-5_104How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Cold Chain Logistics; Physical Distribution; Warehouse Management; Transportation; Product Timeline; Storage Conditions

Abstract

This study investigates what drives physical distribution performance in Shah Alam’s cold-chain logistics by examining four operational factors— product timeline, warehouse management, transportation, and storage conditions. Using a quantitative design, we surveyed 231 employees across cold-chain firms via a five-point Likert instrument. All constructs demonstrated strong internal reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.850–0.936). Correlation analysis showed positive associations among the predictors and physical distribution, and a multiple regression model exhibited good fit (R = 0.837; R² = 0.701; Durbin–Watson = 1.95). Results identify warehouse management as the dominant and only robust positive driver of distribution efficiency (β = 1.185, p < 0.001). In contrast, product timeline was not significant (β = –0.150, p = 0.077), transportation showed an unexpected negative association (β = –0.222, p = 0.040), and storage conditions were non-significant (β = –0.051, p = 0.649). These findings suggest that isolated improvements in timeline compression, transport capacity, or storage upgrades do not reliably translate into better distribution outcomes unless warehousing processes—inventory accuracy, picking and staging, temperature handling, and coordination—are first optimized. Managerially, firms should prioritize warehouse process discipline, workforce training, and digital enablement (WMS/IoT visibility), then integrate transport scheduling and product-timeline planning to avoid downstream bottlenecks. The study highlights the centrality of warehouse excellence and coordinated, data-driven operations for cold-chain performance, and points to future research on real-time analytics and cross-functional synchronization to enhance last-mile integrity and reduce waste.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Siti Roshaida Abd Razak
AU  - Sudar Mathi Savarich
AU  - Siti Hanim Mhd Kudus Mokhtar
AU  - Nor Aliza Mohammad Ali
AU  - Nordiana Jamaludin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/20
TI  - Exploring the Factors Influencing Physical Distribution in Cold Chain Logistics in Shah Alam, Malaysia
BT  - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Accounting, Management, and Economics (10th ICAME 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1491
EP  - 1504
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-709-5_104
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-709-5_104
ID  - Razak2026
ER  -