Supply Chain of the Iphone 4 Series

One key element of Apple’s strategy in computers, personal media players, tablet computers, and smart phones is product innovation, diversification and development. Over the years Apple has been very successful in integrating software and hardware in new developing products. Despite the struggling economy in recent years, Apple has been able to grow their market share and stay ahead of the game.

Apple is a global company represented in many parts of the world, but born in the United States by computer wizards by the names of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who founded the company back in 1976 (Capon, 2008). The organization deals with the design and sale of computer hardware, software and offers tech support to its customers. Examples of the hardware the company manufactures and sells include mobile phones, personal computers, iPads, tablets and iTunes with associated brands, like the MacBook and iPhones that represent Apple’s driving force towards its success. It is recognized as a brand leader in consumer electronics by the world in terms of quality and customer satisfaction and despite the wide product range, Apple manages each product in a distinct way that is a single business unit (Mittan, 2010).

Apple Inc. commonly known as Apple has effectively managed to be a successful company in a very competitive consumer electronics industry by been innovative and differentiating the company’s products with similar products in the markets by offering high quality products and good customer service while the actual manufacturing of the products is outsourced to trusted third party suppliers. On a wider perspective, the company has set high standards that even the company itself has to be on its level best to maintain the standards that it has set. Over the last few years, the consumer electronics market has

Apple's entire supply chain has been rated as the top supply chain in the world by Gartner's (Wailgum, 2011). Apple was one of the top companies rated in the resilience category by overcoming such hurdles as the Japanese earthquake without any major disruptions. Other categories that the supply chains were critiqued under included speed, agility, efficiency, responsiveness, and innovation. Apple's entire production operation is outsourced to the Asian Pacific and the company manufactures their goods through strategic partners who are some of the best electronics manufactures in the world.

Samsung's supply chain management has several operational core processes and each process has its own complex design. Therefore, this paper will focus on one main process, the filfullment order process. This paper describes Samsung Electronics SCM operation practices, analysis its fulfillment order process, the challenges encountered, and how they were resolved. The paper also presents the flow chart of the fulfillment process to highlight its operational activities.

The multi billion-dollar corporation, Apple Inc., designs and manufactures some of today’s highest technological gizmos and gadgets. Among their best known products are the Apple and Macintosh computers, iPods, iTunes, iPhones and iPads. Apple is one of the most powerful and influential high tech companies in the world. The success of Apple Inc. stems from the innovation and visions of co-founder and entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, the excellence of the stylish, user-friendly products, and the ability to create innovative products that consumer’s desire.

Apple has a vertically integrated business model, meaning that they are involved in nearly every step of the production process for Apple products. The hardware they produce can be accompanied by a variety of Apple brand accessory components consumers may wish to use with their Apple device. The most popular Apple devices include iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook and AppleTV. Apple products run on their own unique operating system, which sets them apart in the industry from other personal

For nearly twenty years, Apple computers have been the industry standard for creative industries such as publishing, advertising, digital music and video editing, and graphic design. Apple computer and peripheral products include Macbook and Macbook Pro laptops, iMac and Mac Pro desktops, as well a line of flat-panel displays and the

It is imperative for businesses to commit a highly percentage of their resources to managing their supply chain. This proves to be a vital factor for companies that is doing business overseas. In regards towards the scrutiny behind Apple labor practices, this presents an opportunity for other electronic companies to arise and establish a benchmark for labor practices and bring about a change in this area. This would turn an enterprise risk exposure to a benefit as stated by Diermeier in Forbes (2012) “you can outsource operational risks and financial risks but you cannot outsource reputational risks.”

Even though Apple has encountered many setbacks, it continues to bring new and improve products to the market. Apple’s competitive strategy has been innovation. They have made an extraordinary effort developing, implementing, and executing its very unique strategy through innovation which has resulted in new product, and the enrichment of the existing ones. More specifically, Apple attempts to meet and supply the needs of a global market, by offering eager and enthusiastic consumers with innovated and high-quality products and services. Apple has employed a differentiation strategy linked to innovation with its three core products (computers, personal media player, mobile phones, tablets and other accessories). A key piece of their strategy involves meeting the needs of the converging digital electronics and computer markets. Apple has elected to implement its strategy by designing and developing proprietary operating systems and software technologies, thus allowing for strict protection of its intellectual rights.

Apple’s renowned for their brilliant abiltity to cope with changes in market demand. They strictly control every aspect of the supply chain to ensure that both the distribution and supply-and-demand relationship are near perfect. They use a Make-To-Stock method of Supply Chain Management that allows customers to walk into any Apple Store and make a purchase the same day, which is coupled with an extremely low inventory level that means the system has nearly Make-To-Order characteristics. Apple uses SAP (Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing), a German Enterprise Resource Planning software, to power the global supply chain and implement a strategy to “purchase raw material and reserve manufacturing capacity ahead of time “ [1] in order to make this possible.

Apple's main competitors are Microsoft, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Acer, HP, Nokia, etc. These all are highly specialized in their respective products. Today, the biggest challenge for

Apple has always been something of a trendsetter in the tech space. Its product history since Steve Jobs’s return in 1997 gives us a solid list of examples to choose from, from its very first iPod, to Apple’s PowerBook (and later MacBook) lines, to the iPhone and the iPad. Apple’s history is dominated by products that existed before Apple had a crack at them - but it was Apple who simplified them, made them appealing on a much wider scale, and ultimately made them objects of desire for the masses.

Apple’s supply chain management process is one of the most popular and interesting process. Apple’s continuous strive to be a leading edge technological company in the market gives them the upper-hand to its suppliers. An article written by Eva Dou and Lorraine Luk on WSJ Digits on November 20, 2014 explains the power Apple has on its suppliers and some detrimental effects the power has left on the supplier. At Apple, they have a strict process on how they release a product and the advertisements that are put out in order to get stakeholders attention. Each step is crucial to Apple’s continuous success, these steps consist of; research and development, concept testing, pre-launch, official launch, and the quarterly review. As for Apple’s supply chain management, the logistics, and all the production processes is what has kept Apple at the top of the technological market.

2． Powerful brand image associated with quality and superior hardware design: Apple continues to innovate in the area of hardware design. Some innovations are:their own A-series chips for iDevices: Where others use general purpose ARM based integrated circuit chips to drive their devices, each A-series chip is designed specifically for the devices it is to power, designed explicitly to meet Apple’s specific requirements; the unibody design for the laptops: provides a lighter, stronger case for the MacBooks; the multi-touch track pad on the laptops: was new & innovative; the magnetic charger connection on the MacBooks; all the iDevices: the build quality is surpassed by no other; The newest iPhone 5 is regarded as a gold standard in terms of its durability as well as the iOS. In each of these examples, hardware design – aesthetics aside – is always of high quality, and uses the latest technology that is ready.