Root-cause Analysis with Affinity Diagram
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Root-cause Analysis with Affinity Diagram
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Poor Environmental Sustainability Standards
Environmental sustainability and conservation forms an integral part of an organization’s social responsibility. Although Apple’s supply firms such as Baosteel and Haworth have taken the lead in promoting environmental conservation, the two firms have attracted public criticisms from Chinese activists, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations (Murphy & Sherry Jr, 2013). Therefore, Apple has been accused of not just violating occupational safety, but also harming the environment. Although Apple responded by defending itself, it failed to address the main issues that were raised by these bodies. For instance, there were numerous cases of spread of pollution through the organization’s supply chain. A large body of case studies found that Apple’s supply chain had shocking levels of environmental pollution, resulting in direct harm to the immediate community members in terms of emission of poisonous gases (Murphy & Sherry Jr, 2013). There also large quantities of hazardous wastes that left hidden dangers for the Chinese communities that live within these factories. An audit report also found that there were blood-stained productions. Thus, as the organization carries on with its expansion agenda, it continues to confront numerous ethical challenges related to the environment. This has resulted in emergence of opposition in China through aggressive environmental groups and green coalitions such as the Green Choice Initiative. Therefore, Apple should seek ways of engaging its stakeholders on dialogue about environmental sustainability.
Poor Employment Practices of Foreign Suppliers
Apple is one of the American firms that contract with organizations in developing economies to generate products, such as electronic devices. This is partly attributed to the fact that the wage rates in those countries are significantly lower than the wages in the United States. However, most of these firms exploit their workers through practices such as involving women and children at below minimum-wage rates or by subjecting them to long working hours in environments that are characterized by health hazards. In some situations, some supply chain organizations are offensive to women and often deduct their salaries for participating in labor unions. Just like other high-tech firms, Apple is reliant on foreign suppliers for production of components and assembly of many of its products Clarke & Boersma, 2017). After the unveiling of many labor issues with its foreign suppliers and manufacturers, Apple reported that it began to assess practices at its supply chains and to communicate its ethics. However, this move has not generated its desired results. Critics argue that Apple was not fully committed to ensuring that its practices are fully observed and implemented.
Failure to Verify the Supply Chain
Apple failed to comply with federal and international regulations that require verification that their supply chain has sufficient controls to safeguard both product safety and ethical practices. Numerous organizations have come to the fore in attempting to demonstrate ethical sourcing throughout their value chains (Gonzalez-Padron, 2016). The organization can manage ethical issues in the supply chain through monitoring efforts that evaluate their suppliers’ ethical environmental performance and competences in connection to ethical standards. In particular, the organization failed to undertake supplier audits, which is a popular mechanism of monitoring suppliers and essentially entails use of assessment questionnaires (Gonzalez-Padron, 2016). Additionally, the company may undertake regular site visits and inspections to verify the degree to which their suppliers comply with universally accepted ethical standards. Monitoring activities can be accompanied by consulting certification bodies such as Global Reporting Initiative, Social Accountability 8000, as well as ISO certification. These certification bodies often require proper verification of the degree to which a potential supplier complies with the global and local ethical standards (Gonzalez-Padron, 2016). Some firms often undertake supply chain audits ion a regular basis to evaluate the degree of compliance with internationally accepted industry codes of conduct, such as the Electronics Industry Code of conduct.
References
Clarke, T., & Boersma, M. (2017). The governance of global value chains: Unresolved human
rights, environmental and ethical dilemmas in the apple supply chain. Journal of Business
Ethics, 143(1), 111-131.
Gonzalez-Padron, T. L. (2016). Ethics in the Supply Chain: Follow-up processes to audit
results. Journal of Marketing Channels, 23(1-2), 22-33.
Murphy, P. E., & Sherry Jr, J. F. (Eds.). (2013). Marketing and the Common Good: Essays from
Notre Dame on Societal Impact. London: Routledge.