Operations Management and Strategy of Apple Inc - Coursework Example

Apple Inc. Operations Management and Strategy Executive Summary Different researchers and business schools have primarily researched operations management. Nevertheless, not only because of its roots but also because of the area, it covers, and the knowledge and the skills gained from the study. This report reviews on operations management at Apple Inc, starting from the definition, how it is conceived, supported, delivered and its development. Apple Inc defines a US global firm that designs, manufactures and markets mobile communication devices and media devices. Steven Paul Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Gerald Wayne founded the company on 1st April 1976, with its headquarters in Cupertino, CA. later the founders incorporated the company like Apple Computer Inc on 3rd Jan 1977. The company also sells related software, services, peripherals, and applications globally directly, online, either in its retail stores or through third-party cellular network carriers and other intermediaries. Introduction According to Jones & Robinson (5), operations management is the planning and organizing the production of manufactured goods and delivery of services. One can define Operations management as an art or as a science. It involves working with things and with people with certainties, probabilities, and possibilities. Being a science, it involves understanding the techniques, processes and tools. The art is in applying them effectively within the context of people who provide and process the inputs to achieve the desired output. Operations management in an organization is a complicated issue. The purpose of operations management is to utilize the all the available productive resources. How Apple Inc Conceives Its Operations Management To understand how Apple Inc conceives its operations management, it is worth looking at its organizational structure. Apple’s organizational structure has been changing from time to time, with the current change made in year 2010. In the current structure, Apple Inc hired a new vice president who will be reporting directly to Tim Cook. The company also gave Paul Deneve the responsibility for special projects and should report directly to Tim Cook. This shows that the organizational structure in Apple Inc is a centralized one where every function of the company rotates around the chief executive role as illustrated in the figure below. The type of the structure shown above has its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of this centralized structure are High rate of operations responsiveness Decision making within the departments is possible The CEO has influence on the decision making of the departments It ensures a centrally controlled structure Traditional hierarchy is reduced Disadvantages of this centralized structure are CEO has many departments to handle Product-oriented functions are not interrelated and thus a communication gap between departments. High transaction costs between departments. How Apple Inc Supports Its Operations Management Kamauff (10), notes that operations management is a functional area just like marketing, finance and human resources in most organizations. It has the responsibility of making long-term strategic long-term decisions that affect the entire organization. Those decisions must be in line with the organization’s mission and the overall strategy. Operations management has evolved as a discipline over a number of years. To supports its operations Apple’s Inc management have established departments aimed at ensuring that all operations within the company run smoothly. These departments are: Marketing; the main goal, why Apple came up with this department, is to help in identifying the customer’s needs and preferences and to market those products that satisfy the customers Device engineering; the main work of this department is to design Apple’s hardware and software. The main focus of this unit is configured and customize the software and the hardware to guarantee that Apple are in line with the latest trends and technology The software engineering department is to design unique software How Apple Inc Delivers Its Operations Management To ensure that the operations management unit deliver, it is important to look at three criteria of performance in operations management system and the production function (Chary 1.7). These criteria are customer service, effectiveness, and efficiency. Efficiency refers to the utilization of resources. In terms of customer service, Apple has managed to provide goods and services that satisfy its customers’ needs. Its effectiveness in its operations has made the company receive consistent awards as the most admired company. Additionally the company bases its success on its ability to create innovative products and services and its ability to demonstrate integrity in every business interaction. The company has four main principles that contribute to the integrity which are honesty, respect, confidentiality, and compliance. How Apple Inc Develops Its Operations Management The approach in which a corporation manages its profit model provides an insight into the role that the operations management can play in the company (Sushil & Martin 27). In developing the operations management, the company should have in mind its objective of quality attainment and variety achievement. Apple Inc. has managed to promote its competitive advantage by the fact that its top managements consider the operations management as being able to promote the competitive advantage .apple has also managed o review its traditional operations management processes. This measure makes cost control easier in order to achieve the economies of scale. Finally, The Company has made efforts to emulate the capabilities of the best companies by installing and managing its manufacturing and service processes that are equivalent to those of the leading companies. Operation’s Performance Operation performance describes how the organization does in terms of time, cost quality and flexibility. Whenever a gap exists between policy and the desired level of performance, the operations manager needs to make improvement to close the gap. Policies and practices determine the kind of performance measures important for a firm. The key performance indicators, which are customer service time, quality of feedback to the operations functions, tell how well the operations are performing (Brown et al.,8 ). Apple Inc is the world largest information technology company in terms of revenue and the third largest mobile phone maker. The success attributes to its ability to apply the four’ p’s making it one of the best companies in terms of its overall organization performance Apple Inc Development of the Operations Strategy . The success in developing Apple operation strategy is because of solid knowledge of the processes and the factors known as the competitive dimensions. Competitive dimensions involve the optimizing the flow of products, information, and cash across the extended enterprise. Competitiveness across the core competencies determines the success of the company’s operations. These dimensions include product, cost quality, reliability, delivery speed, flexibility, support and the changes in demand. Development of operations within an organization makes it possible for the organization to develop effectively and define the value it creates for its end users in a manner that other organizations are unable to do. As Tan & Matthews (172) points out, organizations that focus on the development of operations are in the forefront in meeting their short-term growth goals and are successful as compared to other organizations in the same market. Apple Inc. has recently received awards for being the most admired company. The success attributes to the organizations continuous ability to satisfy its customers Project management of Apple Inc Recently Apple Inc. also gave Paul Deneve the responsibility for special projects within the company. From definition, Project management is a combination of principles, methods and techniques used to plan and control the project work (Vida 6). The role of the project manager in Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to meet the requirements of a project. It provides a basis for effective planning, resourcing, and decision-making, scheduling, controlling and re-planning. Apple Inc achieves its goals such as the productivity goals, cost effectiveness and ensuring quality of its services and products because of applying important principles of managing the project. Project based organizations (PBO) is a temporary structure of an organization put in place to perform the work of the organization. PBO exist in any organizational structure. It is worth noting that PBO measures the success of the final product or service through bypassing the position and the politics and thereby weakening the red tape and the hierarchy within the organization since the project team works within PBO and receives authority from there (Mian, 93). Understanding the structure is an important move by the project manager as it helps him gain the cooperation and thus ensuring the success of the project. It is important for the project manager to address several key issues when workings on projects (Kathy,253 ). These are issues include: Communication; due to different cultural backgrounds and the fact that people work in different time zones, a communications management plan is important (Cobb,128 ). Trust; Trust is an important factor when working as a team. It is important to build trust by respecting each person and the value they add to the project Common work practices: project manager must give the team time to develop common working practices using tools to facilitate the process Tools; information technology plays a major role in enhancing communication and work practices. While many people use tools such as Skype and Google to communicate, many project management tools involve their own communications and the collaboration of features in an integrated package. Solving issues relating to project management Project management does not end after preparing a detailed project plan. While the project is ongoing cost problems, scope and time issues emerge. The role of the project manager is to analyze risks while project is still in progress. In case the risks are materializing, he must take the necessary action to solve the issues. Change management in a project To ensure the effectiveness in managing a project, change management is a critical activity to follow. Software tools are available for the project managers to help them in monitoring the changes to occur in the requirements, environments and schedule. Change management in the test environment for code, promotion as well as in the development is another area that requires much-disciplined activity from the project team. In addition, the project manager must possess skills of estimation and scheduling, as projects are specific activities with definite star and end times. Supply chain management Over the past years, Apple Inc. has come to view the practice and the concept of supply chain management as the most important strategic discipline for corporate survival and for achieving the competitive advantage. Apple Inc understands the importance of the supply chain in its capacity to achieve continuous competitive advantage. As the figure below illustrate, Apple Inc has a large supply chain since it’s a large worldwide manufacturing company. (Source: (Campbell 1)) The company has the ability to look ahead to their network of the business partners in search of resources to apply to ensure competence that will resonate within their own organizations, core product and process strategies (Ross, 1). The business environment today requires every organization to integrate its strategies with those of the supply chain systems to build the competitive advantage. The Critical Issues That Apple Face Regarding Supply Chain Management The current emergence of highly competitive business scenarios has caused major challenges in maintaining an effective management of supply chain system. Efficient communication is the most important factor in achieving a successful supply chain. The most critical issues in the supply chain are speed and the accessibility of data and information (Ron & Nevan, 265 ). Communication issues is also a challenge due to the coordination of geographically dispersed clients, warehouse and destination centers. However, with advanced communication technology solutions those issues can be resolved. Conclusion Apple Inc has managed to stay ahead of its competitors due to the application of strategies that ensure the company enjoys large economies of scale. The frequent review in organizational structure is move that has enabled the company operations to be in line with recent emerging technologies and new products in the market. The way the company conceives, supports, delivers its operations management is quite impressing and this makes the company received admiration from different companies worldwide. Finally, the company has succeeded in the managing its supply chain systems and in the management of its projects. Recommendations The project manager at Apple Inc. should ensure continuous monitoring of operations to guarantee project activities alignment with set project goals. Continuous monitoring will help identify any issue that may arise at the early stages and to solve them before further damage happens to the project. The manager can apply the following tips to ensure effective project monitoring. Daily activity report Weekly report on the projects report Review reports Downtime reports defect reports and risk and assumptions analysis report In addition, Apple Inc should use software tools available for project and task scheduling. However, to ensure a comprehensive monitoring of the project progress a software tool must work in conjunction with the above tips. References Campbell, Mikey. Ireland to close Double Irish tax loophole in 2015, firms currently using tactic get grace period until 2020. Apple Insider. Web. February 5, 2015. Accessed from http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/10/14/ireland-to-close-double-irish-tax-loophole-in-2015-firms-currently-using-tactic-get-grace-period-until-2020 Chary, S. N. Production and operations management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print. Cobb, A. T. Leading project teams: The basics of project management and team leadership. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE, 2011. Print. Jones, P., & Robinson, P. Operations management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print. Kamauff, J. W. Managers guide to operations management. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print. Kathy, S. Information Technology Project Management. London: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print. Mian, M.A. Managing Knowledge in Project-Based Organizations: A Cultural Perspective. Vaasa: Universitas Wasaensis, 2009. Print. Ron, B. & Nevan, W. Total Supply Chain Management. London: Routledge, 2010. Print. Ross, D. Introduction to Supply Chain Management Technologies, Second Edition. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2010. Print. Steve, B.Kate, B, Paul, C,& Harvey M. Operations Management: Policy, Practice and Performance Improvement. London: Routledge, 2013. Print. Sushil, G. & Martin, S. Production and Operations Management Systems. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2015. Print. Tan, K. H., & Matthews, R. Operations strategy in action: A guide to the theory and practice of implementation. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2009. Print Vida, K. P. The project management handbook: A guide to capital improvements. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2012.Print. Read More