Supplain chain
bobousa2004
ops561_apple_inc._week_2.pptxProcess Design and Supply Chains
Apple Inc. Supply chain
OPS561/ Week 2
Professor: Darrell Di Fabio
Vincent Nguyen
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Company’s overview
Company’s supply chain
Internal process of the company
Analysis of he internal process of the company
Design approach for the internal process
AS IS process flowchart
Metric to measure the process and its application
Tool to collect data for each step of the process
What we are going to cover
2
Apple Inc. was founded in April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.
It focuses on manufacture of computers, electronics and software.
Its first computer was Macintosh made in 1984.
Apples supply chain system - sourcing ,manufacturing, warehousing, distribution
Apples supply chain is very integrated.
Company overview &supply chain
Apple Inc. is an international company that focuses in the manufacture of consumer and business computers, electronics and software. The firm was established on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. It was incorporated on January 3, 1977 and was initially know as Apple Computer, Inc for 30 years until it was changed to Apple Inc. on January 9, 2007 in order to embrace a more diverse line of production to the market.
Macintosh computer was one of the first products of Apple which was released in 1984 and was embraced in the education sector. This flagged progressive variations and greater innovation between the company’s products. Though the innovation and variations were not reached immediately, introduction of Macintosh Portable and electrical equipment such as digital cameras, speakers and television applications failed to gather much appeal in consumer market. This triggered Apple to re-examine their position in the marketplace and Apple linked itself with companies such as IBM, Motorola and Microsoft at some point hoping to increase its sales. This did not work for the company and thus they decided that reinvention of their original products was the best direction to pursue. During the reinvention Macintosh was transformed to iMac and its success allowed the firm to cast a wider net to include other products and services such as Apple Store, iPod, iTunes, MacBook, iPhone and iPad.
The supply chain for Apple starts from sourcing raw materials which come from China, USA, Europe and other Asian countries. Manufacturing the products is done in china where they are assembled. Storing the products in warehouses which are in UPS/Fedex, Elk Groove, California. Distributing them to the end users through retailers, wholesalers, online stores and direct sales.
3
Some of processes in Apple are:
Research and Development
Concept testing
Pre- launch and launch
Quarterly reviews
Pre- launch and launch is a very crucial process in a company
Pre- launch makes the market anticipate for the product
Pre-launch prepares the launch
Launch officially introduces the product to the market
Launch event makes demand forecast up to 150 days
Internal process
The pre-launch is important before the launch because it determines the launch quantity which will be needed during the grand opening
pre-launch raises orders which the customers give in order to get supplied with the product, provides proper inventory level and manages material purchase
Pre-launch creates awareness and educates target customers of the product which is about to be released in the market and this makes the market to be ready to receive it once it is released.
Apple Inc. has a large market share and during its pre-launch its target market gets to know the product which is about to be released and they get eager to receive it.
During pre-launch, specifications of the product should be availed and told to the target market.
During the launching of the product, the customers are already aware of the product as they were anticipating to get it because it had been introduced during the pre-launch stage.
During the grand opening event, it’s the best time for Apple Inc. to give promotions, discounts and offers as they usher in the new product
After the launch demand for the product is created and the product gets demand from the early adopters.
The launch process is important and it has helped Apple Inc. and other companies to introduce products in the market.
4
Double diamond approach can be used
It entails discovering, defining, developing and delivering
The design shows the developers thinking process
This shows the divergent and convergent stages of design (Moon, Rugman & Verbeke, 1995).
Design approach for launch process
The double diamond illustration was developed through in-house research at the Design Council in 2005 as a simple graphical way of unfolding the design process.
Double diamond design approach has four distinct stages which include discovering, defining, developing and delivering.
The above design method maps the divergent and convergent stages of designers thinking process.
Discovering phase marks the start of the project where ideas are sourced from and it involves a market research, user research, managing information and design research groups. It acts as the phase of divergent thought where designers and project teams are open to different ideas.
In the first quarter of discovering in the double diamond design approach user needs are identified.
In the second quarter of the double diamond is defining phase where the designers interpret and align the user needs to business objectives.
The main tasks during the define phase include project development, project management and project sign-off.
In the development stage which is the third stage of double diamond is when design-guided solutions are developed, restated and tested within the firm. The activities in this stage include multi-disciplinary working, visual management, development methods and testing.
The final stage of delivering, products are finalized and launched in the market. The main tasks are final testing, approval and launch and targets, evaluation and feedback loops.
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AS IS flowchart process of launch
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Readiness and signups
Drive action and sale
Early demand
Launches are planned into three distinct stages:
Pre-Launch Stage - it comes before the launch stage which prepares the launch event.
Launch Stage - this is where the product is introduced in the market by the grand opening event
Post-Launch Stage - this comes after the launch event with the early demand.
The Pre-Launch Stage creates early responsiveness and begins to build a pre-launch list of early adopter society members around the product offering, site and business. Early adopters in the community influences the readiness of the product in the market which is vital to do this before the main launch phase. This is a great way to test marketing messaging. Its also important to educate the market about the product coming list and build a launch. The process starts by a word of mouth that spreads before the grand opening which makes the market anticipate for what is coming.
The Launch Stage creates initial push around the product, site and business. This is a best time to make special offers and bonuses available that make shortage around early purchase decisions. This should also be done on blogs, videos, interviews and other modes in order to provide a social proof to increase adoption.
The Post-Launch Stage continues driving initial demand, showing actual proof of real world results with interviews, success stories, testimonials and 3rd-party reviews. During this early demand phase, sales are ramping up sharply.
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Pre-launch
launch
Post-launch
Metrics are used to track and assess the status of a process
Some of the metrics are financial, sales, marketing and call center(Kan, 2002).
Sales metric is important in the launch process
The tool which may be used to collect data is instruments quick start
Instruments helps in gathering broadly different types of data and compare them
Instruments collects data about a process over given time
Metrics to measure the process and tool to collect data
Business metrics for a process are quantifiable measures used to track and assess how the business if fairing in its operations
An example of sales metric is sales target which measures and compares current sales to a target or past performance.
Sales key performance indicators hits into the competitive nature of sales teams by envisioning their performance in a tangible way.
The performance success indicators are when Apple wins new members over a certain period of time and also when the revenues surpasses those of the previous year.
The whole process can use instruments quick start tool to collect data. It uses instruments to gather data over a given period of time.
The instruments are used for gathering is widely different data and compare them.
Trends which cannot be spotted with the other tools can be advertised. For example, the app may have large memory development that is caused by various network connections being opened. Using the allocations and connections instruments together, one can identify the connections that are not closing and so are causing the rapid memory growth.
Even though most instruments are used toward gathering trace data, the User Interface instrument helps automate data collection. With it you can record user events while you gather your trace data.
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Sheffi, Y., & Rice Jr, J. B. (2005). A supply chain view of the resilient enterprise.MIT Sloan Management Review, 47(1).
Kan, S. H. (2002). Metrics and models in software quality engineering. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc..
Moon, H. C., Rugman, A. M., & Verbeke, A. (1995). The generalized double diamond approach to international competitiveness. Research in global strategic management, 5, 97-114.
References
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