Instructions:

1. Paraphrase the sections highlighted in red

2. Try as much as possible to retain the meaning of the original content
3. DO NOT USE SOFTWARE TOOLS IN DOING THIS

Time: 2 hours

Company Analysis: Case of Apple

Apple Inc. is an American company that offers services to several countries. Its services include
designing, initiating growth of and selling electronic products, for instance, PCs, hardware and
software and also computers from its well known brand known as Macintosh. Having the name
Apple Computer Inc, the company was started in 1976 in Cupertino, California. (About Apple
Company 2012) By 2007, the company had ventured into offering more services on electronics
apart from just pertaining computers and also dealt with a wide range of electronic
merchandise, this all resulted to the dropping of the Computer in the firm’s name. At the
moment, the company and its services are known worldwide and the firm manages its
businesses in almost 13 countries. (Apple Product Line 2010) With regards to market finance
provision, specialists have found out that the company has been acknowledged for being on e
amongst the greatest publicly traded firm in the commercial sector. In comparison to its
rivalries, the firm has an organized system to make its line of products more efficient and
effective for clarity. Surpassing financial prosperity has been attained through the PCs, iMac,
iPods and iPhones that were added in their chain of products. (Why a simple product line is
integral to Apple’s success, 2009). In the tech and PCs industry, a few companies are running
their businesses, therefore they have limited competition. (Apple iPad Mini to be pitted against
Kindle Fire 2, Nexus 7, 2012)

Supply Chain Management Efforts

The company initiates the growth of new products like the new iPod media player found
everywhere proceeding the market’s demand that controls Supply Chain Management. The
company took part in a joined supply chain and controls the operation’s accuracy. The schemes
were put in place for supply chain management roles such as dealing with commercial sales,
fabrication and dividing the products. (Haag, 2005) moreover, forefront practicality with new
model is incorporated by the company which makes build-to-order and configure-to-order
easier within the company (Coyle, Langley, Gibson, Novack & Bardi, 2008) Formerly, the
fabricated commodities were shipped to the markets. Despite it being financially saving, the
form of transport used took longer to reach the goods to the consumers. With time, the
company made use of air transport and even began door deliveries to their customers. The
door services started in the iPod era. (Apple iPad Mini to be pitted against Kindle Fire 2, Nexus
7, 2012) Concurrently, this task has aided us in knowing that the Apple Inc. has played a huge
role in bringing up equipment to make the firm more accurate especially it playing part in the
SCM. For instance, the purchase of modified lasers that pokes holes and lets out green dot light
on most of the firms products even the MacBook Pro. (Why a simple product line is integral to
Apple’s success, 2009). Simultaneously, the management embraced order entry, order status,
configure-to-order and compatibility of the web to the World Wide Web for consumers of
Apple to Apple.com products, this has made provision of the merchandise to the consumers
grow more. (Lebreton, 2007) With the higher level of a fore thinking organization, real time
credit card permit and rule based allocation the company is able to incorporate its plans and
the functional activities. This arrangement has made the skills even better than before and also
the reduction of the 60% build-to-order time. (Boon-itt & Wong, 2011)

At times, the factors that impact the Apple Company end up disadvantaging the Supply Chain
Management. The middle management class brought up problems because it did not single out
the operational situation on dissimilar areas of operation. (Christophe, 2012) Manpower
distribution has been tampered with regards to deficiency in clarity all due to creation of
responsibility in the lower rank. (Burnson, 2012) This rearrangement also brought about
pessimism and warm air amongst the employees especially with the additional fact that this
whole operation supports extra hours of duty without really caring about the safety of the
people while initiating the growth of the new products. (Boyer & Verma, 2009) Similarly, all
factors that jeopardized the connection in between the working class and the structure affected
the management in its Supply Chain Management. (Haag, 2005)

Product Development Process and Role of Supply Chain Management

Basically, initiating the growth of any new product in the firm is part of product development.
To work on a new product, the designers are given all they need and more so a conducive
environment to work on their original merchandise. (Apple Product Line, 2010) Considering that
the designers have no links to the financial department, they can use any item to test out their
ideas and plans. Once the designers are done with their work, a group is separated from the
other working staff in accordance to its opinions and keeps it confidential to maintain optimistic
and harmonious working conditions. At this stage the team is at liberty to work on the new
product, this stage is referred as ‘Start-up.’ (Haag, 2005) Apple New Product Process (ANPP)
jots down every petty detail on moves and measures; right after the product has been
designed. (About Apple Company, 2012) As specified by researchers who have broken down the
company, every Monday it holds a meeting to talk about measures and what they opt to do
afterwards.

Conclusion

With respect to producing standard, creative and original goods, it can be drawn that the
quality of SCM function is quite impressive considering what has been discussed above. The
pillar in the supply chain management has been identified as utilizing forefront practicality on
the supply chain management since it as lessened the amount of time of build-to-order cycle to
make the merchandise greater. A quicker means to get the products to the consumers is by
buying all of the available cargo space. This is also considered as strength as the accuracy in
supply chain management is higher. Simultaneously, absence of accountability and clarity are
weaknesses to the SCM functioning.