Sam Oliver
Supply chain sources from the Far East indicated to DigiTimes that Apple has "adopted even stricter management over its supply chain than before," a report published on Monday reveals. The changes include more frequent inspections, greater time spent on inspections, and a renewed focus on managing costs and product quality.
All of Apple's suppliers are being "heavily evaluated," the report said, as Apple has placed particular focus on the performance of its supply chain over the last six months.
In one example, Apple reportedly discovered a fingerprint mistakenly printed on one internal component from Apple's latest MacBook lineup. Upon discovering the error, the company allegedly demanded a recheck of its entire production line to resolve the issue.
Apple's new, stricter approach is said to be a "challenge" for production line management at suppliers. Monday's report also said that it is expected to set a new threshold for companies that might attempt to enter into Apple's supply chain.
Cook's ability to ensure Apple's supply chain runs smoothly and efficiently was known as one of his hallmarks well before he took over as CEO of Apple full-time last August. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs originally brought in Cook to make the supply chain leaner and more agile, with limited overstock of inventory.
When Cook initially took over Apple's supply chain, he cut down the number of component suppliers from 100 to 24, forcing companies to compete for Apple's business. He also shut down 10 of the 19 Apple warehouses to limit overstocking, and by September of 1998 inventory was down from a month to only six days.
Earlier this year, Cook even personally visited an iPhone production plant in Zhengzhou, China, run by Foxconn. The trip came as Apple faced media scrutiny over working conditions in its overseas supply chain.
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57 Comments
Tim Cook was responsible for Apple shutting down most American manufacturing by Apple. His expertise in offshoring manufacturing is responsible for Foxconn grabbing the lions share of Apple's manufacturing work. Suicides and a massive amount of job losses at areas prior made in western nations.
Apple's "cracking down" on supply chain management is hardly a novel idea, cut down the amount of ordering to keep inventories under check. ie order what you think you are really going to make computers, ipads, iphones, etc.
If they had done this sooner, would Apple have included a better camera in the NEW IPAD (ipad 3)??? they used they same camera's as the iphone 4, not even iphone 4S. yes they used 1 1/2 year old parts. Which is a major slight to consumers hoping for quality and up to date tech.
I know Tim Cook is a decent guy, but remember his history is really a background in Worldwide Corporate Materials... ie he moved manufacturing to China. So... its important to know who is really leading Apple at this point. Simply put.... his priority was making things cheap and keeping them cheap. at all costs, which has included factories in china which are very questionable at best and some believe are modern equivilent of slave camps.
Maybe instead of a large font TS can post a jpg to make his statement. (Dutch tongue in cheek humor TS, just kidding) [quote name="mitchelljd" url="/t/150769/under-tim-cook-apple-cracking-down-on-supply-chain-management#post_2129403"] If they had done this sooner, would Apple have included a better camera in the NEW IPAD (ipad 3)??? they used they same camera's as the iphone 4, not even iphone 4S. yes they used 1 1/2 year old parts. Which is a major slight to consumers hoping for quality and up to date tech. [/quote] Maybe Apple thought that a true mobile device like the iPhone deserves the latest & greatest camera, whilst the iPad will surely be used less as a camera and therefore would justify a lower-end one?
This is excellent news. I suspect this will one thing Apple do that their copy cat, so called competition, won't by emulating.
[quote name="mitchelljd" url="/t/150769/under-tim-cook-apple-cracking-down-on-supply-chain-management#post_2129403"]Tim Cook was responsible for Apple shutting down most American manufacturing by Apple. His expertise in offshoring manufacturing is responsible for Foxconn grabbing the lions share of Apple's manufacturing work. Suicides and a massive amount of job losses at areas prior made in western nations. Apple's "cracking down" on supply chain management is hardly a novel idea, cut down the amount of ordering to keep inventories under check. ie order what you think you are really going to make computers, ipads, iphones, etc. If they had done this sooner, would Apple have included a better camera in the NEW IPAD (ipad 3)??? they used they same camera's as the iphone 4, not even iphone 4S. yes they used 1 1/2 year old parts. Which is a major slight to consumers hoping for quality and up to date tech. I know Tim Cook is a decent guy, but remember his history is really a background in Worldwide Corporate Materials... ie he moved manufacturing to China. So... its important to know who is really leading Apple at this point. Simply put.... his priority was making things cheap and keeping them cheap. at all costs, which has included factories in china which are very questionable at best and some believe are modern equivilent of slave camps. [/quote] This is, of course, nonsense. Almost everything you say is wrong. Tim Cook is not responsible for Apple shutting down US manufacture. Global economics and US manufacturing policies caused that. If Tim Cook was solely responsible, why don't HP, Dell, IBM, and everyone else manufacture in the US? Suicides and massive job losses? Care to document that? Apple has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US. Apple's control of inventories isn't novel? Then how do you explain Apple's incredible 75 inventory turns per year? And how do you explain that Apple's inventory turns are greater than anyone else in the industry (or most other industries, for that matter) by a large margin? Finally, Cook joined Apple in 1998. By then, the shift from US manufacturing to manufacturing in China was well underway in most industries. More importantly, the improvements in efficiency during the Cook era are a large part of the reason that Apple's still here. It is extremely juvenile and uninformed to blame one person for the state of US manufacturing.
I love to see this emphasis. Apple is locking and loading to build products at a much higher scale. This is very hard and costly to replicate