Apples Operation Management - Annotated Bibliography Example

Apple’s Operation Management Affiliation Bibliography Pietro R., 2009 How can fluid dynamics help supply chain management? International Journal of Production Economics 118 (2), 463-472 Pietro Romano associates with Supply Chain Management, business marketing, and product development at the Udine University. His ideas targeted the businessmen and those joining the business world. His work is similar to Peck, who also has articles on research on product development and supply chain management. Pietro’s article text is reliable since it is used by the business people to plan their activities effectively. The strength of the article base on ability to give reliable information of strategic business plans and designs while its weakness is the inability to provide information to the strategic plan in a developed organization. His article is reliable due to its critical analysis information on strategic plans. In my view, this article is suitable for providing information of supply chain of the company’s products supply chain. Kastsian, D. & Monningmann, M., 2011. Optimization of a vendor managed inventory supply chain with guaranteed stability and robustness. International journal of production and economics, 131 pp. 727-735 The authors have ventured into Automatic Control and Systematic Theories in Ruhr University in Germany. They use their skills in supply chain design so to perform their research. Their research emphasizes on the organizations micro dynamics innovations, organizational routines evolution and relationships and capabilities between organizational change and technology. Their work is similar to Kilbi, Martel and Gatuoni who also researched on supply chain inventories and organizational evolutions and entire facilities management. The strength of the article base on dynamics innovations though she does not point out clearly the relationship between the organization change and technology. In my view, the article is based on organizational. Kilbi, W., Martel A., & Gituoni, A., (2010). The design of robust value-creating supply chain networks. Critical review. European Journal of Production Research. The authors are France researchers with supply chain designs skills. They perform research on strategies on supply chain management. Apart from others Kilbi Walid also research on risk controls in supply chain. Their major research topics include supply chain sustainability and pricing, facility management and Lean Design methodologies and Product Development. Their article is similar to that of Simangunsong, Henry and Stevenson. They both research on supply chain network and designs though other authors focused more on geographical systems. In their article, they get credited on a good explanation on supply chain sustainability though he did not have a good explanation in the product development. In my view, the article is more important on marketing operation performances. Simangunsong E., Henry, L.C., & Stevenson, M., 2012. Supply-chain uncertainty: a review and theoretical foundation for the future research: International Journal of Production Research. 50(16), pp. 4493-4523 The authors are researchers and lecturers in various Operation management departments. Their main research concerns the organization and management of geographical systems and supply chain networks. Their work is reliable in the supply planning and control due to the effective information it provides. John Hanson work is similar to their research in the context on Supply Chain Management. Their article contributed mainly on the Lean improvements and not much on the manufacturing improvements. In my view, her article is more reliable in marketing operations than manufacturing. Sundin, E., Lindah, M. and Ijomah, W. 2009. Product design for product/ service systems; Design experiences from Swedish industry. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management 20, 723-753. The Swedish authors are professor and researchers are associated with Supply Chain Management research. Their research ideas focus is on Supply Chain innovations and knowledge management. Their research is reliable in matters of supply chain management. Their article strengths based on knowledge management though it had a weakness in the lack of good explanation in the management strategies. It is also similar to Simangunsong Elliot work on supply chain and on product systems and the product design. In my view, the article can guide more on supply chain strategies. APPLE INC Introduction Apple Inc. is a corporation of American Multinational that has headquarters in Cupertino in California. It sells designs and develops computer software, consumer electronics, personal services and online services. It is commonly known hardware products include the iPod media player, computer Mac line, iPad tablet computer and an iPod smartphone. Its online services include App Store, iTunes Store and iCloud. The Apple’s consumer softwares are Ios and OSX operating system, Safari web browser, iTune media browser and iWork productivity and creativity suites. Operational overview Apple is global second largest company of information technology by revenue following Samsung electronics. It is also the third-largest in the world in as mobile phone maker. In 25th November 2014 became the first organization in U.S to get a valued at more than $700 billion apart from being the largest world public trade corporation by market capitalization. Apple employs more than 72, 800 permanent full-time workers and maintains over 425 retail stores in a total of fourteen countries. In addition, it operates the iTune Store and the Apple store, the latter that is globally largest music retailer (Apple, 2013). Apple’s globally annual revenue totaled to $182 billion in 2014. The company enjoys a great high leveled brand loyalty. According to Interband Best Global Brand Reports, it is the most global valuable brand that has a value of US$118.9 billion. Apples services and products Operations transformation process Transportation process is the practice of any group or activity that takes either a single or more input, transform and increase the value to them and then provide an output to the clients or customers. If the inputs are in raw material form, it becomes easy to see the transformation involved. On the other hand, if the transformation involved is information or data form, the transformation nature might be invisible (Malakooti, 2013). In this case of the Apple Inc., we consider the computer electronics that get transformed in the company (Apple, 2013). The computer electronics undergo the transformation process of changes of the materials and customers characteristics. The computer electronics change to maintain its brand to maintain the high competition with Samsung and Sony (Apple, 2013). Hence, as years pass Apple Inc. has improved its electronics features in many ways. For instance, the iPhone4 is different from iPhone6. The iPhone6 tend to have a large screen than the iPhone4. As Romano says, the customer characteristics also change from time to time. Customer preferences of the phone, laptop or tablet change with the amount of money they can spend or the trending features of other phones such as high megapixel camera. Therefore, the products change their physical characteristics to focus on maintaining their competition with other companies (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano, 2009). The location of the material also transforms from time to time. According to Luisa, it depends with the population and the consumer behaviors of a certain area (Tony, 2010). If the area increases in population the electronics are supplied in a large number at that area and locate the materials in fewer consumers to those with a large number of consumers. Operation Performance Evaluation Quality The Apple’s products are of high quality. They provide technological products that can be applied in various institutions and even at home. The software and hardware products get created with creative design from professionals. The company has employed skilled workers who design the products so that they can meet all the customers’ requirements (Apple, 2013). Customer satisfaction is the main focus for Apple’s company. Hence, as Pauline concludes, having good quality products with all customers’ requirements will attract more customers to buy their products and thus, earn more profits (Wu & Wang, 2009). Speed The company performance is also at high speed. The manufacturing and supplying process run in high speed due to long supply chains. It is because Apple products and services get offered worldwide (Apple, 2013). Hence, the company needs to supply their products as first as possible to reach all its customers (Pietro, 2009). As a result, the company uses technology to gather information and supply their products at a high speed. Therefore, as Jolia concludes high speed on supply and manufacturing helps the company supplies their products to all their customers. Dependability Apple products have proven to be reliable. For instance, from the reports of the problems reported in the market share, iPhone stand out to be the latest smartphone reliable. In the consumer reports, Apple gets a high percentage of 78 of consumer satisfaction (Apple, 2013). Therefore, Apple ensures that their products are reliable in customer satisfaction terms and also in the market share. Flexibility Apple is a known example of a firm that has effectively adopted a flexible plan. Even though the firm leads in the table markets and phone, its innovations are rapidly copied within weeks of the product introduction. Thus, it is hard to maintain a competitive edge in a rapid evolving industry dynamics in these markets (Peck, 2010). Firstly, Apple uses a unified system, iTunes (App Store Model) that serves different devices while reinforcing further growth. The system is an innovative supply that provides flexibility in strengthening the firm’s position. Cost Apple products costs depend on the quality of the product. Though, the costs are fair; the customers from different financial level can afford the products. The product manufacturing process also determines the cost of the product. Hence, if the product undergoes several processes requiring a lot of capital, it will have higher costs (Nollet, Pronce & Campbell, 2009). In addition, the level of the supply chain also determines the cost of the product. As the product goes through different suppliers, its cost increases. Hence, Apple’s products have different costs depending on the quality and the level of the supply chain. Apple’s Supply Chain Planning Control Customer service management Apple’s customer relationship management is mainly concerned with the relationship between its customers and the organization. According to Gregory, customer service is their main source of customer information (Sundin, Lindah, & Ijomah, 2009). In addition, it also provides their customer with real-time information about product availability and scheduling through company’s interface on distribution and production operations. The management controls the relationship by determining the mutual satisfying objectives for customers and organization and also establishes and maintains the customer rapport. In addition, the management also induces positive feelings to both customers and organization. Hence, Apple Inc. Controls their customer services to improve customer satisfactions (Apple, 2013). Product commercialization and development The Apple management plans the product development by integrating both suppliers and customers (Apple, 2013). It ensures that as a product life cycle reduces, efficient products should get developed and then successfully get launched. The other product should have an ever-shorter schedule of time in order to remain competitive. As a result, they coordinate the customer service management to know the customer articulated requirements and choose suppliers and materials that conjunct with procurement. Hence, the development and commercialization of the product maintains the company in the competition (Simangunsong, Henry, & Stevenson, 2012). Physical Distribution control In this case, the Apple’s operational management is concerned with the movement of finished services and products to the customers. In physical distribution, the final marketing channel destination is the customers. Hence, the service or product availability is an important part of every participant of the channel marketing effort (Kilbi, Martel & Gituoni, 2010). Physical distribution is also important in making time and customer space the marketing integral part. Thus, it links the Apples’ marketing channel with its customers, which include the wholesalers, manufacturers, and retailers. Manufacturing flow management control The processes of manufacturing supplies and produces products to the channels of distribution based on the past forecasts (Kastsian & Monningmann, 2011). The management ensures that the manufacturing processes are flexible for market changes responds and mass customization accommodation. According to Rosella, the manufacturing flow processes changes result to short cycle times. Therefore, this process controls the activities on scheduling, planning and supporting the manufacturing processes (Apple, 2013). Techniques and tools used to analyze the complex Apple’s operational issues, and development is the impact tool. It gives a structured approach to looking for any negative impacts of the change (Hsu & Li, 2009). Apple analyzes its complex operational issues and developments in the firm through conducting an impact analysis. In the analysis, the management analyzes if there are any improvements in its operations and what impacts has resulted from the improvements. On the hand, it also checks the negative impacts that arise in the operational performances (Apple, 2013). As Pierpaolo concludes, the management then encourages on the positive impacts and try to solve the negative impacts by coming up with new strategies. Conclusion From the discussion, Apple is information and communication firm that focuses mainly in customer satisfaction. It achieves this by having a quality performance on products quality, costs, reliability, high supply speed and flexibility. Its supply chain management contributes in the operation performance through customer service management, manufacturing flow management, product commercialization and development and physical distribution. References Hsu, H-C, Li, H-c, 2009, An integral plant capacity and production planning model for high tech manufacturing firms with economics of scale. International Journal of production Economics. Developments in german literature. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 11(1): 10-14 Kastsian, D., Monningmann, M., 2011, Optimization of a vendor managed inventory supply chain with guaranteed stability and robustness. International journal of production and economics, 131, 131 pp. 727-735 Kilbi, W., Martel A., Gituoni, A., 2010, The design of robust value-creating supply chain networks. Critical review. European Journal of Production Research. Simangunsong E., Henry, L.C., Stevenson, M., 2012, Supply-chain uncertainty: a review and theoretical foundation for the future research: International Journal of Production Research. 50(16), pp. 4493-4523. Sundin, E., Lindah, M., Ijomah, W. 2009, Product design for product/ service systems; Design experiences from Swedish industry. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management 20, 723-753. Nollet, J., Pronce, S., Campbell, M., 2009, ‘About “strategy” and “strategies” in supply chain management’, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 11(2/3), 129-140. Peck H., 2010. Drivers of supply chain vulnerability: An integrated framework. International journal of Physical Distribution and logistics management, 35 (4), 210- 232 Wu, J.H., Wang Y.M., 2009, “Measuring ERP success: The Ultimate Users’ view” International journal of Operation and Production Management. 26, no.8, 882-903. Tony, Bradley (January 29, 2010). "AT&T Beefing Up Network for iPad and iPhone". PC World. Archived from the original on February 1, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2010. Apple Inc. "Apple - Diversity - Inclusion inspires innovation." Retrieved from http://www.apple.com Date of Access 3rd December 3, 2014 Wieland, Andreas; Wallenburg, Carl Marcus, 2011, Supply-Chain-Management in stürmischen Zeiten (in German). Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU. Perez, David, 2013, Supply Chain Roadmap: aligning supply chain with business strategy. Blanchard, David, 2010, Supply Chain Management Best Practices (2nd ed.).New York: John Wiley & Sons. Malakooti, Behnam, 2013, Operations and Production Systems with Multiple Objectives, John Wiley & Sons. Pietro R., 2009 Co-ordination and integration mechanisms to manage logistics processes across supply networks. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management. Pp.119-134 Read More